Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Dr. Zacch Adedeji, has urged global leaders to intensify efforts against rising cross-border crimes that continue to undermine revenue mobilisation and economic growth.
A statement from the FIRS said Adedeji made the call while delivering a keynote address at the 42nd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crimes (CIDOEC), held at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
He was represented by Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, Coordinating Director of Proceeds of Crime Management and Illicit Financial Flows at FIRS, and immediate past chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Speaking on the theme of this year’s symposium, “Cross-Border Crimes”, the FIRS chairman described such crimes as one of the most pressing challenges of the modern global economy.
“In a global economy where capital can move faster than law enforcement, and where digital and legal arbitrage often outpace regulation, the fight against cross-border economic crime is, by necessity, both local and global, both urgent and pressing,” Adedeji said.
He warned that cross-border tax crimes had weakened the ability of nations to raise revenue for development and created unfair competition in global markets.
“Cross-border tax crimes distort fair competition because compliant companies pay a higher cost for business and appear less profitable,” he stated.
According to him, individuals and corporations exploiting gaps in international trade and finance systems to evade or manipulate tax obligations are complicit in cross-border crimes.
“When corporate or natural persons earn income in one country but hide same in another country, when they deceive, conceal or falsify records, they undermine the integrity and fiscal aspirations of the two countries they are manipulating.”
“When companies engage in abusive transfer pricing and manipulate intra-group transactions between subsidiaries in different countries to shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions, they are engaged in cross-border tax crimes,” Adedeji said.
The FIRS chairman noted that President Bola Tinubu’s administration inherited not only fiscal challenges but also a system plagued by economic crimes such as abuse of the fuel subsidy regime, exploitation of foreign exchange rate differentials, illicit financial flows, base erosion and profit shifting by multinationals, and trade-based money laundering schemes.
He explained that the government’s Renewed Hope Agenda was designed to protect Nigeria’s fiscal sovereignty, boost domestic resource mobilisation, close leakages in the economy, and recover diverted assets.
“Fiscal reforms were a major part of this vision, thus on June 26, 2025, the President assented to four landmark tax reform bills, a clear signal that our reform agenda is not aspirational but actionable.
“These reforms modernise our tax laws, enhance transparency, strengthen enforcement, and align Nigeria with global best practices. The new fiscal regime heralds over 400 specific changes into Nigeria’s tax laws and administration,” he said.
Adedeji also disclosed that the FIRS, which will transition into the Nigeria Revenue Service from January 2026, is redefining its role as not only a tax collection agency but also a fiscal crime prevention, intelligence gathering and sharing organisation.
He said the agency had embarked on a technology-driven transformation programme to strengthen tax administration in the country.
“FIRS has launched tax data automation, e-invoicing, real-time analytics, AI-driven anomaly detection, and integrated third-party data matching. These tools ensure that compliance is simplified for taxpayers while evasion becomes more difficult for offenders,” he said.
He added that the agency is investing in a National Tax Data Warehouse to consolidate information from payment gateways, banks, customs, and other agencies, with the capacity to forecast revenues, detect risks, and identify tax evasion patterns through big data analytics and machine learning.
“This makes our tax administration predictive rather than reactive,” Adedeji said.
Source; The Nation News
