Photograph — ICE Business Times

The federal government of Nigeria believes substitute sources of revenue generation will grow the economy out of its current situation provided areas such as Agriculture and Manufacturing are ventured into passionately. The World Bank Global Economic Prospects report released shows that the sub-Saharan African growth is projected to slightly increase by 2.9 percent “while the global economic growth would pick up moderately to 2.7 percent in 2017,” Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group President cited.

The report for 2017 projected stronger global economic prospects after years of disappointing global growth, the World Bank is encouraged to see stronger economic prospects on the horizon, Jim stressed.

Consequently, a London-based World Economics report declared Nigeria’s economy is showing prospects and that the economic will recover from the recession by months to come.

Before now, oil prices in the Nigerian market was at an all-time low and with oil being the major source of revenue, Nigerian’s economic outlook indicated signs towards a recession and if not averted would go beyond 2016.

However, the World Bank prediction that Nigeria will get out of recession and grow its Gross Domestic Product by one percent is another forecast by a global body, as reputable individuals and companies also have an outlook for the economy.

Also, the World Bank projects growth in advanced economies, which would edge up to 1.8 percent in 2017, and growth in emerging market and developing economies should generate up to 4.2 percent this year from 3.4 percent in 2016 amid steadily rising commodity prices.

A moderate growth rate at 6.2 percent is expected in East Asia and the Pacific, likewise for the Middle East and North Africa, the economy is projected to recover modestly at 3.1 percent. Latin America and the Caribbean is expected to expand and grow positively by 1.2 percent and a moderate pickup of 7.1 percent and 2.4 percent in South Asia and in Europe and Central Asia respectively.

With the power shift in the United States, changes in policies are inevitable. However, Ayhan Kose, the World Bank Development Economics Prospects Director reports that growth in the U.S. is expected to slightly increase to 2.2 percent, as the forecast is a borderline for policies in major economies.

In a discussion with CNBC AFRICA, Taiwo Oyedele, Partner and Head of Tax Regulatory Services, PwC says the non-oil sector has not performed as expected in 2016. However, he made emphasizes on the Nigeria Customs Service which generated less than 1 trillion naira (about $3 billion), also, Personal Income Tax (PIT) for the whole country was about 700 billion naira (about $2 billion), both Companies’ Income Tax (CIT) and Value Added Tax (VAT) was less than 1 trillion naira.

Oyedele made claims that South Africa’s Personal Income tax alone is more than all the taxes combined, remitted in Nigeria, unemployment rate between both countries are comparable and at least, Nigeria has more population than South Africa.

“Even with the recession, for instance, Lagos State got more revenue in 2016 than in 2015. The partner and head of tax at PwC, said we need to consider and focus on the key taxes such as PIT, VAT, and CIT. Also, the government needs to fix all the loopholes and linkages in the Nigeria Customs Service and expand the tax base, implement fiscal policies that would jump-start the economy so that when people get more jobs, there will be an increment in the remittance in VAT and PIT. We need to look at the non-oil sector in this manner,” Taiwo Oyedele stressed.

To this effect, the Senate President posed a Made-in-Nigeria challenge, mainly to reward zealous entrepreneurs and tenacious local manufacturers in the country.

The federal government earnestly assured citizens that the country would recover from the recession and grow the non-oil revenue sector in 2017. Therefore, individuals are advised to manage available resources within their means.

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