The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has said the four tax reforms Bill which were on Thursday officially assented to by President Bola Tinubu, would promote and drive Nigeria’s economic growth.

The four bills are: the Nigeria Tax Bill, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill.

Director-General of NECA, Adewale Smatt-Oyerinde made this known Thursday in Abuja, while fielding questions from newsmen on the sidelines of the 4th Employers Summit themed “Enabling Sustainable Enterprise in a Transitioning Economy; Aligning Fiscal, Trade and Regulatory Reforms for Rapid Development.”

Smatt-Oyerinde who was excited with the new Bills, noted that the Organised Private Sector (OPS) have struggled with the challenges of taxes, levies and fees for over 10 years.

He said: “The challenges of efficiency of tax collection has been an issue for every rational stakeholder for a long time, and when his Excellency came up with the Presidential Committee, we think it was a step in the right direction and the committee did a very humane job coming up with that bill.

“With the many controversies and unnecessary distractions that came up at the long last, the bill is to be signed today, which we believe is the beginning of the reform.”

The NECA DG however noted that assent was one hurdle, implementation was another hurdle to cross “because it’s one thing for you to come up with the bill, the main work will start when the implementation starts, because implementation will always come with its own challenges that we are all not aware of for now.

“But we’re happy that he’s signing it today, we’re happy that the reality for organized businesses in the context of harmonized tax, harmonized levies and harmonized fees have started. So for us, it’s good news.

“All of them will open up the economy, they are intertwined. There’s no one that is standing, that is exclusive of its own. All the four bills play their complementary roles in promoting and driving organic growth.”

“You don’t grow from top, you grow from promoting businesses, some that affect MSMEs, some that affect SMEs, some that affect big businesses, some that affect individuals so it’s a chain reaction that we expect that affects the whole economy together.”

Smatt-Oyerinde explained that NECA was working directly with the presidential committee throughout the work phase of the Bills and made its inputs readily available. He added that the Association was much more interested in the implementation to which NECA was ready to deepen engagement with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the principal agency to drive the conversation.

President of NECA, Ifeanyi Okoye, noted that for over six years, NECA has remained firmly committed to promoting a stable, predictable and enabling policy and regulatory environment where all businesses irrespective of sector and sizes could thrive, create jobs and deliver shared prosperity.

He charged the federal government to demonstrate firm commitment to the actionable outcomes that would come out of the Summit saying, “This must not be another talk shop. It should be a catalyst for the policy coherence and reform implementation that businesses and indeed, the country urgently need.

“As we engage in the conversations ahead, let us remain focused on the bigger picture—fostering inclusive and sustainable development that empowers enterprises, strengthens human capital, and improves living standards across our nation.”