The President of MFP Global Services and Leader of MFP Group Dr Prince Oyebade Oyedepo, FCA has urged the States Internal Revenue Service (SIRS) to embrace strategic partnerships for revenue growth and development.
The MFP boss made this recommendation in his paper titled, Strategic Partnerships for Revenue Growth delivered at the ongoing capacity development programme organized by ICMA Professional Services for Senior Officers and Management of Oyo State Internal Revenue Service in Lagos.
In his words, today, state and federal governments are facing the critical challenge of generating sustainable revenue to cater for the needs of government. The modern revenue ecosystem requires innovative approaches towards solving the challenge; one of which is to prioritize expanding the tax net by identifying existing but untapped taxable activities and increasing compliance.
This transformation cannot be driven by isolated efforts. Instead, it must be fuelled by strategic partnerships and collaborative frameworks that transcend institutional boundaries. Strategic partnerships represent a shift from working in solitary to embracing synergy, shared resources, and joint action. Inter-agency collaboration—especially between federal and state institutions, financial sector players, registries, and utility companies—is the bedrock of this new approach to revenue growth.
Oyedepo opined that despite the enormous economic activities in Nigeria, a large proportion of taxable persons and entities engaged in them remain outside the tax net. Factors such as fragmented data sources, poor inter-agency communication, and inadequate technological integration contribute to this situation. By fostering partnerships among revenue agencies, financial institutions, registries, and utility companies, we can close these gaps and unlock untapped revenue streams.
According to him, various institutions hold pieces of the revenue puzzle; when these agencies collaborate, each brings unique data and authority that can significantly boost tax mobilization and revenue.
He mentioned the key partnerships to include the federal and state revenue authorities, corporate affairs commission (CAC), national identity management commission (NIMC), Nigeria inter-bank, settlement system (NIBSS), banks and financial institutions, land registries, utility providers (electricity, water, telecoms), vehicle licensing authorities, state ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).
The MFP President stated that strategic inter-agency partnerships yield clear advantages for tax administration and revenue mobilization. collaborative efforts improve system efficiency, broaden the tax base, access to new customers and markets, improves efficiency and cost savings, enhances innovation and competitiveness, strengthens brand trust and reputation, risk mitigation, and long-term sustainability
Strategic partnerships in tax administration can take some forms such as data-sharing partnerships, joint enforcement or audit teams, financial partnerships, technology partnerships, integration partnerships, marketing partnerships and capacity building partnerships.
Beyond choosing a partnership type, implementing it requires deliberate steps including identifying potential partners, establishing mutually beneficial goals, fostering strong relationships, co-creating taxpayer services (e.g., unified tax portals), conducting joint research to improve tax policy, launching integrated compliance initiatives, harmonising cloud-based platforms for information sharing and API (application programming interfaces) integrations for seamless data exchange.
According to Dr Oyedepo, strategic partnerships can encounter some challenges as even well-conceived partnerships encounter obstacles. He mentioned common challenges to include; misaligned objectives among partners, poor communication and information dissemination, unequal resource commitment, data privacy and legal compliance concerns, operational and cultural differences, leadership changes, partnership disruption, resource and capacity constraints.
To overcome these obstacles, agencies should implement concrete solutions such as establishing shared strategic goals, strengthening communication and information exchange, defining equitable roles and responsibilities, addressing data privacy and compliance concerns, bridging operational and cultural gaps, all agreements/operational processes, and project documentation should be institutionalized, not personality-driven, process of building capacity and pooling resources should be agreed from the onset.
Dr Prince Oyebade Oyedepo further advised SIRS to embrace giving of awards to outstanding voluntary tax payers (individual and corporate category) to motivate them, conduct of research to aid planning and periodic engagements with tax payers, professionals, market men and women, artisans and traditional rulers.
He concluded by asserting that Collaboration is no longer a matter of convenience in modern revenue administration—it is now absolutely imperative. In a rapidly changing fiscal environment, where governments are pressured to do more with less, the path to sustainable revenue growth lies in fostering strategic partnerships.
The journey toward sustainable revenue growth requires more than technical solutions—it demands leadership. Emerging leaders must champion the vision of collaborative governance, advocate for transparency, and drive reforms that create an enabling environment for partnerships to thrive. They must initiate conversations, facilitate trust, and remain committed to the shared goals of revenue expansion and economic development.
Let us embrace this collaborative spirit and lead the transformation of our revenue systems—for our states, our nation, and generations to come.
