Nigeria became Africa’s largest economy in 2014 when its gross domestic product (GDP) data was rebased but the country lags behind South Africa, the second-largest, in terms of the tax to GDP ratio. That is not all. While Nigeria’s tax to GDP is estimated at about 6%, South Africa’s is 28%, and the average tax to GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa is 17%.

What could be responsible for this disparity? A recent Small and Medium Enterprises survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and obtained by Nairametrics revealed that business owners, especially SMEs would suffer more from the development, as it found that Nigeria probably has more tax authorities than any other country in the World with the exception of the United States. But, unlike Nigeria’s tax administration system, the United States’ tax to GDP ratio is 26% (over 4 times higher than Nigeria’s) with a much more robust database of taxpayers and payments.

READ ALSO: IATA raises alarm over excessive charges on Nigerian airlines, others

Findings of the survey

PwC surveyed over 1600 business owners across 29 states (6 geopolitical zones in Nigeria) to bring more light to reasons SMEs employ over 80% of the workforce but wealth is not diversified.

• 49% of SMEs pay 20% to 40% of their income or profits on taxes and levies.
• 28% of businesses pointed out that the Local government charges, taxes and levies were the most difficult to comply with. The average income tax rate for companies is about 32% and for non-incorporated entities 19.2%. This may mean that the local government actually accounts for the remaining 10% to 20% of the tax contribution from SMEs.
• The percentages are significant when compared to actual contributions by LGAs to tax collection in 2019. Unlike data on Federal and State tax revenues, Local government tax revenues are relatively difficult to ascertain or obtain.
• There is a need for consensus and collaborative dialogue from all public and private sector stakeholders in dealing with the data gaps, issues and challenges at the LG level.
• Multiple taxes and levies remain a bane for tax-paying businesses in Nigeria, especially MSMEs.
• The lack of coordination between federal and state tax agencies is also an issue. There are 36 state tax authorities in Nigeria, in addition to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the local governments. Each of these entities has constitutional rights to raise taxes and this has given rise to increased tax burden and complaints from businesses.
• Nigeria ranked 159th out of 190 economies on PwC’s ease of paying taxes index 2020.
• The absence of a central technology platform stall ease of payment of taxes.
• It took, on average, 343 hours for entities to comply with tax payments. This was the time taken to prepare, file and pay value-added or sales tax, profit tax, labour taxes and contributions.
• Most businesses made, on average, 48 tax payments to the tax authorities in a year.

READ: IATA raises alarm over excessive charges on Nigerian airlines, others

Specific challenges SMEs encounter with respect to paying your taxes

READ ALSO: How much longer will players in the telecoms sectors suffer multiple taxations in Nigeria?

Expert’s recommendations

Partner & Head, Private Wealth Services, PwC, Esiri Agbeyi, explained that for the nation’s economy to grow at the desired rate, a lot more of SMEs must be unicorns (i.e. a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion). To achieve such a feat, she recommends:

• Review Constitution and tax laws: Multiple taxes remain a problem as the Constitution gives the 3 government tiers distinct taxing powers. Businesses will continue to struggle with this problem unless something more concrete is done about excluding overlapping powers e.g. with consumption taxes. The tax laws should be reviewed and amended annually through Finance Acts. Over time, Nigeria can lean towards a lower direct tax on income and more indirect tax on spending as we find in developed economies.
• Centralised administrative system: Deploying a single centralised technology platform for tax administration in the country will help to improve tax collection, enhance ease of payment, reduce the cost of tax collection, as well as a plug or eliminate the leakages in the system. The time saved in paying taxes could be put to more productive use by businesses and the nation as a whole.
• Single Tax Authority: Most countries adopt the model of a single tax authority for tax administration of both corporates and individuals. This is the case with the UK’s HMRC and South Africa’s SARS. Both countries have significantly higher tax to GDP ratios than Nigeria. Companies are run by individuals. Linking both provides much gain in closing gaps on non-taxation or evasion. The reverse is the case when information is disaggregated across several tax authorities.
• Formalise the informal sector: Multiple taxes may be an issue but what is worse is when tax is paid by a few and the tax net is not widened. Some say the missing piece has been the informal sector. However, players in the informal sector cry that they pay taxes too. The problem is there is no data and some of the taxes collected may only find their way into private pockets. Evening the playing field for all taxpayers would involve relaxing the entry rules and easing the barriers for informal businesses to get into the formal sector.

READ MORE: FIRS to brace up on tax compliance policies

In all, it is important for the nation to consider these recommendations for higher tax revenues and more profitable SMEs, which would translate to a profitable economy. Whichever strategy Nigeria adopts, ensuring the SME sector is free of the burden of multiple taxes is very critical.

The increasing cases of the COVID-19 do not only present an alarming health crisis to Nigeria but also come with human impact, the significant economic, business and commercial impact being felt across the nation, especially among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

These and how to reposition businesses for growth either Post-COVID or in the new normal were discussed at the recent PwC Nigeria webinar tagged ‘Repositioning your business for growth’.

At the webinar, Taiwo Oyedele,  Fiscal Policy Partner, West Africa Tax Leader, explained that the pandemic may not leave anytime soon and the best way to go about it is to find ways to leave with the virus for the foreseeable future.

He said, “SME sector plays a vital role with about 40 million of them operating in all sector of the Nigerian economy, employing over 60% of the country’s workforce and providing a livelihood for the majority of homes.

READ ALSO: Tax debt payments extended to August 31- FIRS

“Some estimates have it that millions of MSMEs have shut production and they may not be able to open again, as they suffer from lack of liquidity, credit, income among others.”

Back story: Last June, Nairametrics had reported that an overwhelming 94.3% of businesses surveyed reported being negatively impacted by the pandemic particularly in the areas of Cashflow, Sales and Revenue.

“Financially, a good number of the businesses were doing poorly as about 13% reported having enough cash flow to stay operational for 1 – 3 months while about 33% had enough cash flow to stay operational for only 1 – 4 weeks and about 27% for only 1 – 7 days. A number of jobs were also impacted as 82.8% of the businesses reported that they were likely to lay off 1 – 5 employees,” a Fate Foundation report stated.

While almost 50% of the businesses were able to identify opportunities despite the negative impacts of the pandemic along the lines of creating new products and services, expansion and diversification etc, most businesses reported needing support with cash flow and sales and would like support in the area of funding, access to markets and business support.

READ ALSO: CBN’s Emefiele explains why banks restructured N7.8 trillion loans to customers

Recovery opportunities for SMEs

As far as Tara Durotoye, CEO House of Tara International is concerned SMEs owners should be strategic by dissecting the issues affecting their operations into two i.e What they have control over and what they do not.

According to her, Nigeria does not have a government that supports the reality of the challenges the SMEs are going through, advising business owners not to look up to the government but rather find ways to work around issues and find the solutions.

She said, “This is the time to be closed to your customers, time to call them and find out what they want as the pandemic has created a new normal. For instance, in the makeup industry, findings revealed that customers demand products like powder and lipsticks have dropped. What customers want now is to take care of their skin and not just to cover them,  we would not have known that except we engaged our customers.”

READ ALSO: Fashola to fix 44 roads across Nigeria with Sukuk funds

Technology has become an important part of SMEs operations and operators have to think of the current resources they have and what they can do more about the resources in terms of skill set. There are people who were in makeup that is now doing consultancy, others in Agro and now doing logistics.

She cited an event centre in Lekki corridor, who due to COVID-19 have not been engaged for social gatherings as usual. spoke with its customers using social media platforms and decided to meet their needs by turning the centre to an open market on Saturday.

“It realised that some women in the area were not comfortable going to Balogun or Mile 12 market during the pandemic and decided to create that open market for them.

“Also, there is a Game Centre that has started offering video conferencing services to its clients. It observed a gap in the video conferencing space and explore it. They created a video conference app that would not require much space like Zoom to download and that works on small phones,” Tara said.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: Minister of Power instructs contractors back to site as lockdown eases

She added that this is the time for all business owners to create a will to forge ahead and understand that they do not have a government like Canada or US that would meet their needs as expected.

However, Abubakar Kure, MD NIRSAL MFB in his presentation explained that the Federal Government introduced the TSF and other loans to cushion the effect of the pandemic on SMEs and households when it realised business owners lack the required cash flow to survive the shock arriving from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kure agreed with Tara that SMEs have to think out of the box and not wait for the government but explained that despite the fact that the government has limited resources, it has introduced several facilities across sectors to cushion the effect of the pandemic on businesses.

Shortly after the July Monetary Policy Committee meeting, Nairametrics had reported that between April when the TSF loan was launched and July 12, 2020, the Central  Bank of Nigeria has disbursed N49.19 billion out of the N50 billion Household and SME facility to over 92,000 beneficiaries.

Also, the apex bank disbursed over N152.9 billion to the manufacturing sector to finance 61 manufacturing projects and another N93.6 billion to the Healthcare sector, amongst many other sector-specific facilities.

He said, “The facilities are token but SMEs need to strategies and think out of the box as suggested, The facilities are actually subsidised because they are between 1 to 3 years at 5% for 1 year and 9% subsequently.”

He added that the facilities are actually subsidised for businesses to survive and for people to retain their jobs and for the economy to recover from the shock created by the pandemic.

In conclusion, PwC made in-depth recommendations for government, SMEs and stakeholders on policy and strategies to cushion the effects of the pandemic on the nation’s ailing economy.

Click here to watch the webinar

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it reserves 60% of its N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund for women entrepreneurs.

The apex bank added that 2% of the wholesale component of the fund would be given to economically active persons that are living with disabilities, as 10% is meant for start-up businesses.

This was disclosed by the bank in the guidelines it issued for micro, small and medium enterprises development fund for non-interest financial institutions.

READ: Bank loans not main funding option for Nigerian MSMEs -PwC

Back story: Last June, the Federal Government of Nigeria had announced it would roll out palliatives to assist women-owned medium and small businesses (MSME’s) recover from the impact of the pandemic.

Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Pauline Tallen, explained that the National Survey on the impact of COVID-19 on women-owned businesses in Nigeria captured trends and patterns of the losses caused by the pandemic on women-owned businesses, and will now guide the government’s move to revive the affected businesses.

She said, “The impact of the pandemic on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) has been quite massive, and resulted in unforeseen losses for business owners.”

READ ALSO: CBN’s decision to establish NMB is counter-productive -NAMB

Why it matters: The sub-sector is characterised by huge financing gap, which hinders the development of MSMEs.

“Section 6.10 of the Revised Microfinance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Nigeria, stipulates that ‘a Microfinance Development Fund shall be set up, primarily to provide for the wholesale funding requirements of MFBs/MFIs’.

“To fulfil the provisions of section 4.2 (iv) of the policy, which stipulates that women’s access to financial services to increase by at least 15% annually to eliminate gender disparity, 60% of the Fund has been earmarked for providing financial services to women.”

It added that this informed the decision of the CBN to establish the MSMEDF, which has a take-off seed capital of N220bn.

What it means: The fund prescribes 50:50 ratio for on-financing to micro enterprises and SMEs respectively by Participating Financial Institutions.

The commercial component will constitute 90% of the Fund which to be disbursed in the form of wholesale funding to the PFIs.