Fowler out, Muhammad Nami in – here are few things you need to know about the new FIRS Chairman

President Muhammadu Buhari appoints Muhammad M. Nami to replace Babatunde Fowler as FIRS Chairman.
Nami is a tax consultant and accounting professional who was once a member of the presidential Audit Committee on Recoveries.
The president also approves the composition of the board of the revenue agency, subject to Senate confirmation.

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Muhammad M. Nami as the new chairman of the country's revenue-generating agency, Federal Inland Revenue Service.

Nami, a tax consultant, will replace Babatunde Fowler, whose tenure 5-year tenure expired on Monday, December 9, 2019. His appointment is still subject to Nigerian Senate confirmation.

President Buhari in his office (Daily Post) Pulse Nigeria

In a statement on Monday, the presidency described “Mr. Muhammad, a well-trained tax, accounting, and management professional with highly rated qualifications and professional practice and licenses from relevant professional bodies, has almost three decades of practical work experience in Auditing, Tax Management and Advisory and Management services to clients in the banking, manufacturing, services and public sectors as well as non-profit organisations.”

The statement added that President Muhammadu Buhari also approved the composition of the board of the revenue agency, subject to confirmation by the Nigerian parliament.

Brief profile about Muhammad Nami, the new FIRS Boss

Nami graduated Bayero University Kano and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology (1991) and a Masters of Business degree (2004) respectively.
He is a fellow of Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Institute of Debt Recovery Practitioners of Nigeria and Associate Member of Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) and Association of National Accountants of Nigeria.
In 2017, he was appointed by President Buhari as a member of the Audit Committee on Recoveries - a committee set up to recover loot in Nigeria. As of September 2018, the committee said it had recovered about $2 billion.
He started his career with PKF, a subsidiary of PKF International Limited, in 1993 and rose to the position of a senior Consultant in charge of Tax management and advisory services.
Until his appointment, he was the managing consultant of Manam Professional Services (Chartered Tax Practitioners and Business Advisers) based in Kaduna, Abuja, Niger States.

FIRS tax collection records Pulse Nigeria

Revenue shortfalls in Nigeria

With this appointment, Nami will step into the shoes of Fowler, controlling a revenue agency that has witnessed revenue shortfalls for the country since the inception of the Buhari-led government in 2015.

Four months ago, the government queried Fowler, over dwindling tax revenue and asked him to account for significant variances in the budgeted collections and actual collections by the agency. For this year, the agency projected N8 trillion collections for 2019.

At different fora, the IMF and other international organisations have advised the government to increase its revenue sources to close a huge fiscal gap, rising debt level, and improve on infrastructural decay.