A policy change advocate, OXFAM Nigeria is proposing a 2 to 3 percent increase in tax payments of multi-billionaires to help finance health expenditure for Universal Health Coverage.
A new OXFAM analysis reviewed through its country Director in Nigeria Dr. Vincent Ahonsi said those with wealth above $50 million and 5% of the Nigerian billionaires would raise 3.2 billion dollars annually, hence could be enough to double health spending, as Nigeria has one of the lowest health budgets in the world.
It said During the past decade, the richest 1 percent had captured around half of all new wealth “Survival of the Richest” was published at the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Stressing that as Elites gather in the Swiss ski resort, extreme poverty increases simultaneously for the first time in 25 years.
“For over five years, Nigeria spent an average of 49% of its revenue on debt servicing, and in 2020, before COVID, this was expected to be 29% or $6 billion. This amount was almost four times the education and social protection budgets, six times the health budget, and 14 times the agriculture budget.
Despite Nigeria having one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world with just 3.6% in 2019,
Nigeria spent 80.6% of its revenue on debt servicing in 2022, the Richest 1% bag nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world put together over the past two years Globally.
• Super-rich outstrip their extraordinary grab of half of all new wealth in the past decade.
• Billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7 billion a day even as at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages.
• A tax of up to 5 percent on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty.
“The richest 0.003% Nigerians (6,355 individuals worth $5 million and above) have 1.4 times more wealth than 107 million Nigerians.
“The wealth of Nigeria billionaires has grown by a third since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic
“The 3 richest men in Nigeria have more wealth than 83 million Nigerians.”
The report further blamed loopholes in the tax legislation, and lack of transparency and accountability thus resulting in unsure next meals of millions in the country.
“While millions of Nigerians are unsure where their next meals will come from, the super-rich
are getting richer and not paying their fair share of taxes but taking advantage of the complexities and loopholes in the tax legislation, as well as the lack of transparency and accountability in tax implementation, thereby depriving the country of the revenue needed for social protection and inequality reduction. It’s time we demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in their wealth somehow ‘trickling down’ to everyone else. Forty years of tax cuts for the super-rich have shown that a rising tide doesn’t lift all ships —just the superyachts.
“Billionaires have seen extraordinary increases in their wealth. During the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis years since 2020, $26 trillion (63 percent) of all new wealth was captured by the richest 1 percent, while $16 trillion (37 percent) went to the rest of the world put together.
A billionaire gained roughly $1.7 million for every $1 of new global wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 percent. Billionaire fortunes have increased by $2.7 billion a day. This comes on top of a decade of historic gains —the number and wealth of billionaires having doubled over the last ten years.
Billionaire wealth surged in 2022 with rapidly rising food and energy profits. The report shows
that 95 food and energy corporations have more than doubled their profits in 2022 and paid out $257 billion (84 percent) of that to rich shareholders.” Said Dr. Ahonsi.
Oxfam is optimistic that a systemic and wide-ranging increase in taxation of the super-rich may claw
back crisis gains were driven by public money and profiteering, as tax cuts for the richest and corporations have fueled inequality, constituting higher taxpayers among the poorer people more than the billionaires in many countries.
Adding that a tax-free treasure which is more than Africa’s GDP could drive a future generation of aristocratic elites.
“With widening inequality and 133 million (63%) Nigerians suffering from multidimensional
poverty, the richest people and corporations in Nigeria are unfazed and are getting richer.
With over 20 million children out of school, it is inappropriate to continue to give wealthy
individuals and corporations tax breaks, incentives, and waivers.
With about six out of ten Nigerians lacking access to quality primary healthcare services, a situation that is worsening disease outbreaks and out-of-pocket expenditure, it is unfair for the wealth of Nigeria billionaires to grow by a third since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic without a corresponding increase in health budgets.
To have a more secure and prosperous society, Nigeria needs to purposely work to reduce inequality, generate more tax revenues from the rich, spend more on health, education, agriculture, and social protection; and provide fair, inclusive, and gender-sensitive
opportunities for its citizens” said Dr. Ahonsi. The new OXFAM report is calling on Governments to raise taxes on capital gains, which are subject to lower tax rates than other forms of income.
