Diamond Bank Trains Entrepreneurs in Taxation

• Diamond Bank Trains Entrepreneurs in Taxation

Diamond Bank Plc said it educated a group of entrepreneurs on the importance of taxation and how to keep proper accounting records at its 64th business seminar for the Small and Medium-scale Enterprises.

According to a statement, the training is in line with the bank’s commitment to fuel economic growth in the country through support for the SMEs.

The bank said in the statement that the decision to educate entrepreneurs on tax affairs was in a bid to give them business advantage in the competitive world of business.

The Chief Executive Officer, Diamond Bank, Uzoma Dozie, said the lack of proper resources and good documentation of tax payments was affecting the growth of the SMEs in Nigeria.

He said, “There are businesses that are successful today but evade paying taxes to the government, which is very wrong. In some cases, these companies actually pay taxes but do not document it well and so they found themselves paying taxes that they were not supposed to pay.

“So, there is a need to pay taxes as these taxes paid are used to create the working business and friendly environment we crave for.”

A Partner at PwC, West Africa, Taiwo Oyedele, while speaking on the theme, ‘Be the boss of your tax affairs,’ explained that countries where taxes were paid had better governance.

According to him, the government needs to do more to educate the public on approved taxes meant for collection by the local or state government.

Oyedele stated that Nigeria made $25bn from tax collection yearly, compared to $6tn in the United States.

He stressed the need for citizens to pay more attention to tax affairs.

The Area Manager, Diamond Bank, Adenike Ogunsugba, at the Ibadan edition of the seminar, stated that the seminar was organised to satisfy the yearnings of customers, build their capacity and give them tips on how to grow their businesses.