Adesina Laments Failure Of Power Sector In Nigeria Provide Electricity, High Implicit Tax Rates
Lamenting that Nigerians pay one of the highest implicit tax rates in the world, the President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, decrying prevailing living condition of Nigerians amidst current economic quagmire bedeviling the country.
The former Minister for Agriculture under former President Goodluck Jonathan noted that most of the citizens provide electricity for themselves via generators while they repair roads in their neighbourhoods.
Adesina spoke in a statement signed on pSaturday by his Special Adviser on Industrialisation, Prof. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka.
The AfDB President was quoted to have made the call in a lecture he delivered as the recipient of the 2024 Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership, titled, ‘Making a New Nigeria: Welfarist Policies and People-Centred Development.’
“Truth be told, Nigerians pay one of the highest implicit tax rates in the world. Most of the citizens provide electricity for themselves via generators; they repair roads in their neighbourhoods if they can afford to. They provide boreholes for drinking water with their money.
“In the 21st century, this is incredulous as every household should have pipe-borne water! Sadly, the abnormal has been normalised.
“If people pay taxes, governments must deliver services to citizens and be held accountable for their ability to do so or not.
“Governments should not transfer their responsibility to citizens. When governments or institutions fail to provide basic services, the people bear the burden of a heavy implicit tax,” Adesina opined.
