IN Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, thousands of business owners are on the brink of financial failure owing to illegal and arbitrary taxes demanded by officials of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), The ICIR investigation reveals.

Russell Ogbonna’s current job is to take care of real estate property on behalf of their owners for a fee. One of his key specialties is remodelling vacant buildings for their owners, which he puts up for sale or rent at higher prices.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxNtcRgRjdc

He manages two blocks of six-unit office spaces located in Wuse, Abuja, which he leases out to renters, while four rooms serve as his office building. The commission he gets from the facilities he supervises helps to cover his 15-member staff salaries, tax payments, and other personnel costs.

But over time, Ogbonna has watched profits fall, though renters in his buildings pay conformably. He cannot figure out why he is losing money.

His financial statements have shown that the tax payments he has made to AMAC over four years have put holes in the firm’s coffers.

Between 2019 to 2021, he has been charged a total of N1.2 million on yearly basis to get a certificate of fitness for continual habitation from AMAC on the property in Wuse. A breakdown of the tax payments shows he was charged N500,000 in 2019, N250,000 in 2020, and N450,000 in 2021.

A certificate of fitness for continual habitation is issued by AMAC revenue officials yearly to commercial buildings in the area council as part of its periodic assessment of the sanitation of landed properties.

The Abuja Bye-Laws does not recognise a ‘certificate of fitness for continual habitation’ as a yearly tax payment, but AMAC revenue officials demand it. In Lagos State, the certificate of completion and fitness for habitation is issued once by the Lagos State Building Control Agency after completing a new building to ensure it complies with the state’s safety provisions.

There is no flat rate on the ‘certificate of fitness for continual habitation’ taxes charged by AMAC officials, but overtime, they indiscriminately assign figures without proper assessment. Ogbonna resorts to negotiating with AMAC officials who would cut down the tax fee in exchange for a bribe as a form of compensation.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/extortion-economy-how-amac-officials-frustrate-businesses-in-abuja-through-shady-tax-deals/