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Tag: Income

  • [Devotional] IN HIS PRESENCE: Create multiple streams of income

    [Devotional] IN HIS PRESENCE: Create multiple streams of income

    By Oke Chinye

    Read: Ecclesiastes 11:1-8

    Meditation verse:

    “In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand: for you do not know which will prosper. Either this or that, or whether, both alike will be good” (Ecclesiastes 11:6).

    To achieve financial security in today’s economy, you will need to create at least one additional stream of income to your major source. Creating multiple streams of income, is no longer a luxury but a necessity, which will ensure that you are protected against unavoidable ups and downs. Today’s reading enjoins you to “cast your bread upon the waters… for you do not know what evil will be on the earth”. This means that you should be willing to take risks and seize the opportunities that life offers rather than trying always to play it safe. You must be prepared, for life offers no guarantees.

    God has equipped you with gifts, talents, abilities, and resources that can be used to generate various streams of revenue. He has commanded you to sow not only in the morning, but in the evening as well. There is so much you can do with the gifts that God has put inside you. If you are knowledgeable on a subject matter, create multiple streams of income by teaching it to others, writing and publishing books on the subject, hosting seminars or taking on speaking engagements. If you have a musical ability, produce an album, write songs for others, give voice lessons, or teach people how to play musical instruments.

    God’s blessings are always manifested in multiple streams. In blessing Abraham, He gave him flocks, herds, silver, gold, menservants, maidservants, camels, and donkeys (Genesis 24:35). Isaac was no different. He had possessions of flocks, of herds and a great number of servants. Isaac prospered, continued to prosper, until he became very prosperous (Genesis 26:13-14).

    God has made this same grace of multiple resources available to you. He has given you the grace to excel and be sufficient in all things, so that you may overflow with abundance for every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8). Do not be like the woman in 2 Kings 4:1, who found herself in financial difficulty when her only source of income dried up with the death of her husband. Create multiple streams of income. “In all labour there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23).

     

    IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Dcns Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

    For Prayers and Counseling email rockteachingministry@gmail.com

    or call +2348155525555

    For more enquiries, visit: www.rockteachingministry.org.

  • Politicians should be required to publicly disclose sources of income – CDD

    Politicians should be required to publicly disclose sources of income – CDD

    Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa) on Monday,, said politicians should be required to publicly disclose their sources of income to foster accountability and develop public trust.

    Director CDD, Idayat Hassan, said this at the launch of the Democracy Watch Reports, a series of reports that examined the state of democracy in Nigeria since May 1999 in Abuja.

    Hassan said that the measure was necessary to forestall corruption in the country as contained in Nigeria’20 years of anti-corruption report .

    She said that the three reports launched by CDD were meant to gauge the performance of Nigeria against some basic attributes of democracy and socio-economic transformation in the last two decades.

    She said that the first report interrogated data on human rights condition in Nigeria while the second report questioned the anti-corruption efforts of Nigeria by x-raying the activities of anti-graft agencies and the third report examined the economic plans of the various administrations in Nigeria.

    Hassan said that for each of the reports, CDD made some recommendations asking that to forestall corruption,legislators should collaborate with anti-corruption agencies and commissions to enact legislation affecting the prosecution of corruption cases.

    “Given the decentralised nature of cryptocurrency, legislators should amend vital legislation to address virtual money laundering concerns.

    “The National Assembly should revise the Code of Conduct Bureau Act to permit public disclosure of officeholders’ asset declarations without jeopardising officeholders’ privacy or safety.

    “The Presidency and National Assembly must strengthen their supervision over ministries, departments, and agencies and collaborate to reinforce their legal and administrative mandates.

    “ Nigeria’s international partners should support national efforts by taking firmer measures to deter public funds theft and prevent illicit financial flows.

    “Finally, our third report recommended that Nigeria needs economic policy reforms especially diversifications so that major macroeconomic variables can be brought under control.

    “This is urgently needed more than ever because of the economic and fiscal challenges brought about by the collapse of the global oil prices occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic,’’she said

    Hassan said that to address the issue of human rights violations, the report urged the government must ensure to safeguard the constitutional guarantees of human rights.

    She said that security forces should be effectively trained and regulated in this area to avoid human rights breaches.

    She added that the Federal and State governments were urged to take note of and execute relevant recommendations from various human rights panel reports.

    She said that Civil Society Organisations could contribute to the training of security professionals in the conduct of ethical civil military operations.

    She also urged media houses should give priority to investigative journalism that focuses on human rights issues to bring the abuses to the public attention and assist in holding government accountable and educate the public about their human rights and avenues for redress.

    She said that public participation in governance was also critical for a democracy to ensure that citizens demand their fundamental human rights and are held accountable for any violations.

    Hassan some of the major findings of the report showed that over 70 per cent of the prison population in Nigeria was made up of detainees awaiting trial, with over 20 per cent awaiting trial for more than a year.

    The report also showed that Nigeria had not fared well in all human rights indicators used, despite utilizing the basic indicators.

    “This trend, it said even deteriorated with the fact that there is now an emergent trend of security officers receiving orders from elites in Nigeria to remand detainees for longer on spurious grounds.

    She added that that the menace of unlawful detention has become rather pervasive such that it has required the intervention of ECOWAS special court in some cases.

    Hassan said that the report condemned extra judiciary killing of innocent Nigerians as witnessed since the advent of democracy in 1999.

    Hassan said that to address the issue of human rights violations, the report urged government to safeguard the constitutional guarantees of human rights which they swore to uphold.

    She, however, said that the report called for public participation in governance so as to ensure that citizens demand their fundamental human rights and are held accountable for any violations.

    Adebayo Olukoshi ,a distinguished Professor With School of Governances , while delivering his keynote address, said the purpose of democratisation needed to be redefined.

    Olukoshi said that Nigeria should be able to deliver development and job opportunity adding that failure to do that the nation’s quest to strengthen and consolidate democracy would amount to jumping on the same spot without making progress.

    He urged political parties to be more programmatic rather than pursuing personal goals and God fatherism type of politics.

    ‘‘This report for me is an attempt to offer a balance sheet of the road we have traveled since 1999.

    “ In the early years of our transition, we made fairly significant progress. Our story subsequently becomes that of under performance in democracy governance.

    ‘‘There has been a gradual closing of civil spaces and conscription of civil liberties in the country, including restriction of media freedom and independence.

    ”In spite of the best efforts of election management authorities, we have seen a continued assault on election integrity in the country. Therefore, the struggle to make vote matter remains a live one.’’

    In his remarks, INEC Commissioner in Niger State, Prof. Sam Egwu, described the report as a deep reflection on Nigeria’s journey for the past 20 years plus coming from very authoritarian background.

    ‘‘We have seen flowering civil and political liberties, regular and periodic elections with some degree of improvements.

    “ We have seen some degree of competition and acceptance of defeat but we have not been able to bring so much benefits to people in terms of material upliftment.

    ‘‘We have been blindly trying to build a liberal democratic order that has not factored in the importance of welfare of the people,” he said.

    Egwu said that there was need to really interrogate Nigeria’s type of democracy and alongside improving our elections, by thinking of a type of democracy that would put in place measures to empower common citizens and make them come out of poverty.

    He also called for the need to work on national unity and integrity, and try to a develop liberal democratic order.

  • How we will spend extra income from rising oil prices — Buhari

    Income accruing to the country from rising oil prices in the international market will be spent on infrastructural development, President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged.

    Receiving a delegation from Eni, led by the Chief Upstream Officer, Mr. Antonio Vella, the President said extra funds outside the provision of year 2018 budget “will be deployed to infrastructure projects like roads, rail, and power, for the good of our people, and for the development of the country.”

    Budget 2018 provisions had been predicated on $45 per barrel by the Executive, and the Senate had adjusted it to $47 per barrel. Oil prices have, however, risen to $70 per barrel, this week.

    President Buhari also appreciated Eni for its upcoming investments in the oil industry, which included rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery, and the building of a new one.

    “In my first coming, all our refineries were working. Port Harcourt used to refine 60,000 barrels per day, and it was later upgraded to 100,000 barrels. Kaduna and Warri were also working optimally, and we used to satisfy the demand of the local market. We equally exported 100,000 barrels of refined petrol. Now, no refinery is performing up to 50%. It is a disgraceful thing,” the President said.

    Leader of the Eni delegation, Mr Antonio Vella, said his organization has presented a technical proposal to the NNPC to rehabilitate the Port Harcourt refinery, and also done a feasibility study on a new refinery of up to 150,000 barrels per day capacity.

    “Site selection has been completed, and 50 new graduates have already arrived in Italy for a training that will last seven months.

    “ There are other upstream initiatives, and a deep water project, with estimated expenditure of $13 billion,” Vella disclosed.

    The oil company also plans to double power generation capacity from its plant in Delta State from its present 500 MW to 1,000 MW, spending $750 million in the process.

     

    Femi Adesina

    Special Adviser to the President

    (Media and Publicity)

    January 26, 2018

  • VAIDS: FIRS, JTB share data of high income earners to drive tax compliance

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Joint Tax Board (JTB) have started sharing data of high net worth individuals to profile income earners and taxpayers and get them to pay appropriate taxes.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that twelve states have signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS).

    The JTB also announced on Monday that it had hired a consultant to ensure that the databases of states’ tax authorities and the FIRS speak to each other.

    The integration of data will help data sharing among states, improve compliance and tax revenue.

    The Executive Chairman of FIRS and JTB, Mr. Tunde Fowler, announced the MoU with states on VAIDS in Abuja at JTB’s 138th meeting.

    He said the integration of data among states between FIRS and JTB would help to identify high net-worth individuals, track their tax status and compliance. He announced that there are no untouchables as regards the implementation of VAIDS

    Fowler said that the Federal Government has demonstrated an uncommon political will to entrench tax compliance in Nigeria, saying issues of taxation are taking a centre stage in the country.

    ”Speaking on behalf of the FIRS and the JTB, I want to assure you that we have received the blessing and political will of Mr. President, the Acting President to implement VAIDS.

    ”The Executive is behind us, the Senate, the House of Reps, are behind us and the Judiciary is behind us. The government is behind us. It is now left for us to perform our duties in the right and best way.

    ”A lot of special things are happening to the country. We are changing the financial profile of the country and of course, taxation is in the forefront. I can’t recall any time in the past when we had had such integration and cooperation. Our vision is to ensure that the governments, at all levels have enough resources to provide essential facilities to everyone. We are also moving away from taxes based solely on oil—that are not predictable to non-oil taxes”.

    ‘I am Happy to announce that at no time in the history of the FIRS have states and JTB have enjoyed this level of collaboration that we are enjoying today. Collaboration is important. States cannot be said to be doing well if the FIRS is not doing well. In the same vein, FIRS cannot be said to be doing well if states are not doing well.

    ”Between 25th and 29th September 2017, the African Tax Administration Forum, ATAF will be meeting in Abuja. Leaders of tax authorities will be in attendance. Many will come with their ministers. We believe that collaboration between heads of tax authorities and Ministers of Finance is healthy for tax work. We will encourage them to come.

    ”In the same vein, we expect that all of you (Chairmen of State Internal Revenue Services) will be in attendance and at least one other person—possibly your commissioner of Finance.

    At the enlarged meeting of the JTB, convened mainly to discuss stakeholders’ implementation of VAIDS, the body ratified the election Chief Oseni Elamah, former Chairman of Edo State Board of Internal Revenue, as the new Executive Secretary of JTB.

    Mr. Elamah takes over from Mr. Mohammed Lawal Abubakar, a Director with the FIRS, who has led the JTB Secretariat for seven years.

    Fowler thanked the JTB members for their activities on the Tax Thursday and further urged them to put more efforts in observing the weekly tax education programme.