Afrobarometer is a series of
public attitude surveys conducted in 35 African Countries during the Round 5. It
measures public perception and attitude to issues of governance, democracy and development
and evaluates the quality of governance and economic performance in Africa. The survey articulates the views of Africans on
critical issues in the surveyed countries and provides comparisons over time
and across African countries. Four rounds of the surveys have been conducted
and published from 1999 to 2010 and Round 5 (2011-2013) was recently concluded
and currently being disseminated. Afrobarometer’s work in Africa is coordinated
by the Center for Democratic Development CDD-Ghana and in Nigeria by the
CLEEN Foundation. The fieldwork for Round 5 was conducted in Nigeria from
29th October to 30th November in 2012 and interviewed 2,400 adult Nigerians.
This release highlights aspects
of the survey findings focusing on public attitude to tax and taxation in Nigeria.
Finding 1: Afrobarometer
Round 5 survey indicate that majority of respondents (75%) were proud to be
called Nigerians
In general, the survey findings indicate that three
of every four Nigerians (75%) are proud to be called Nigerians The survey also suggests that four of every five Nigerians (80%) are usually
very careful when dealing with other people and only nearly only one in seven
citizens (15%) believe that most people could be trusted. Furthermore, the survey indicate that
nearly two-third of Nigerians (63%) are interested in discussing public
affairs. Finally, on general attitudes, slightly more than four out of every
five Nigerians (85%) hold the view that it is necessary to obey the laws of the
land regardless of whom they voted for, while (14%) believe that it is not
necessary to obey the laws of a government that they did not vote for.
What we see from this
dataset is a high level of identification with the country in terms of national
pride, willingness to obey government laws as well as interest in public
affairs. However, this trend is being offset by a high level of mutual distrust
among citizens.
Finding 2: Majority
of Nigerians (89%) say they had never refused to pay taxes to government
authorities, only (6%) said they had refused paying once or twice and (2%) said
they do not know
The survey findings
indicate a willingness on the part of majority of Nigerians to pay tax, given
that nearly nine in ten of them (89%) said that had never refused to pay tax.
Only 6% of them admitted that they had defaulted at least once on tax. Furthermore, slightly more than one in two of
the respondents indicated that they would pay higher taxes to ensure that more
services were provided by government while 43% said they would rather pay lower
taxes, even if it meant fewer public services provided. On Value added Tax
(VAT), 51% of respondents believed they were not required to pay VAT on goods purchased
from shops or traders in the country, while 42% believe they are required to
pay. The survey further revealed that 46%
of respondents believed that they are required to pay property rates or taxes
even if they were unable to pay while another 45% believed that they are not
required to pay. Most respondents (66%) thought that tax authorities have the
right to make people pay taxes and only 22% disagreed. The survey also revealed
that majority of Nigerians (65%) share the view that citizens must pay their
taxes to develop the country, while 35% held the view that government could
find enough resources for development from other sources without taxing the
citizens.
These findings indicate
that majority of Nigerians are willing to pay their taxes. However, more than
half of the respondents believe that they are not required to pay VAT for
purchase of goods and services, indicating low public knowledge about the VAT
system in Nigeria.
There is therefore an urgent need for
tax education and enlightenment in Nigeria, especially the range of
goods and services that require payment of VAT.
Finding 3: Majority of Nigerians, (58percent) said
most tax officials, like the Federal
Inland Revenue Service officials or the Local Government tax collectors are
involved in corruption.
The high level of
corruption noted in the activities of public institutions in Nigeria was
also observed in the work of tax authorities at the federal, state and local
levels. Nearly all the respondents (95%) believed that tax authorities at
various levels are involved in corruption. This is made up of 58% who believe
that all of them/most of them are involved and 37% who believe that some of
them are involved. Unsurprisingly, only 3%
of the respondents trust the Federal Inland Revenue Service a lot. However 44% trust
the FIRS “a little” and 20% trust it “somewhat”. Furthermore, slightly more than 4 in 5 (82%) of the
respondents held the view that it is difficult to monitor how government use
the taxes it collects and only 11% said tax usage is easy to monitor while and
7% said they did not know.
Here the responses
indicate citizen discontent with the tax system in Nigeria. Findings suggest that the
willingness of citizens to pay taxes is influenced by a number of factors
including level of trust in the tax authorities, effectiveness of media
reporting on corruption, transparency in the use of public funds and also the
level of poverty in the land. For the tax authorities to be effective in the
discharge of their duties there is need to address these citizen concerns and
make the tax system in Nigeria
more transparent and accountable.
For more information, visit us online at www.afrobarometer.org and
follow us on Facebook and Twitter. 
@Afrobarometer.
@Afrobarometer.
For further information on Afrobarometer Nigeria, please contact CLEEN
Foundation at cleen@cleen.org
Phone: +234 - 01 - 7612479
