Researchers from the Department of Taxation, Federal University Dutse, have won a N10 million research grant from the United Kingdom-based International Center for Tax and Development, ICTD.
The researchers are funded by ICTD to carry out a research aimed at finding the “Extent of Adoption and Strategic Data Utilization from Digitalized Tax Payment Systems and Digital IDs among States’ Tax Authorities in Nigeria”.
This was disclosed to the FUD Newsletter by the lead researcher, Dr Abdulsalam Masaud.
He said the research was part of the ICTD’s DIGITAX programmes, which is a three-year programme that aims to explore the intersections between tax systems and the expansion of Digital Financial Services, DFS, in order to support governments in designing appropriate and effective taxation of DFS and DFS providers, harnessing the potential for DFS and digital IDs to strengthen tax administration
The ICTD project, which will cover six states’ tax authorities; one from each geopolitical zone of the country, is being funded through the Bill & Melinda Foundation.
The ICTD, according to him, is a growing global policy research network dedicated to improving the quality of tax policy and administration in developing countries, with a special focus on sub-Saharan Africa. It is funded principally by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, FCDO and the Bill & Melinda Gates.
Other members of the research team are Dr Sani Mohammed Damamisau, who serves as the co-researcher and Yusuf Abdu Gimba, the research assistant.
The university’s director of Research and Development, Prof. Yusuf Deeni, commended the researchers for winning this globally competitive funded research.
The vice-chancellor, Prof. Abdulkarim Mohammed congratulated the team for their effort and urge them to conduct the research in record time in order to maintain the confidence reposed in them by ICTD.
He added that the university was ready to strengthen the R&D Directorate to continue to develop the capacity of staff to win competitive grants.
