Group Urges FG to Enhance Public Finance

• Group Urges FG to Enhance Public Finance

The Federal Government has been advised to strengthen public finance in order to enhance economic growth.

A concerned civil society group, called Strengthening Public Finance in Nigeria, stated this during the unveiling of a study on public finance in Lagos.

The study revealed inefficiencies in the country’s public finance.

The study, therefore, recommended the need to improve the country’s public finance in order to achieve better performance.

According to the group, the second phase of the study focuses on corporate social responsibilities, taxes and wages in the country.

The Chairman, STREPFIN, Mr. David Nwachukwu, who spoke at a news conference in Lagos, unveiled a number of other studies the body had carried out in recent times.

STREPFIN is an arm of the parent organisation, Actionaid Nigeria.

Nwachukwu said, “This press briefing is to provide a summary of what has transpired in the last couple of months from when the research was started. By way of background, Oxfam and Actionaid Nigeria commenced a study on strengthening public finance in Nigeria about three years ago with a pilot study of Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa States as well as some Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies.”

He said the outcome of the study showed the poor manner the country’s public finance had been managed.

“There were inefficiencies in the system, and there was a lot of room for improvements. That led us to a road map for public finance management in Nigeria as the first phase of the study,” he explained.

The research work, which was funded by Oxfam, focused on corporate social responsibility, wages and taxes in Nigeria, he noted.

Nwachukwu said, “We call on government to formulate a comprehensive and detailed national policy framework in consultation with the private sector and the civil society community on the proper accounting of CSRs, sustainability of the CSR-related projects, programmes and action to block tax leakages on account of CSR actions by companies.”

He also called on corporate organisations to allow CSR actions to be driven by community need assessment, national and sub-national development agenda, in order to foster cohesion in the pursuit of relevant national agenda, particularly the citizens’ welfare.