Zulum Pledges Support for Tax Ombuds’ Regional Headquarters in Maiduguri

By: Our Reporter

Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, has assured the Tax Ombuds of Nigeria of the state government’s support to establish a regional office in Maiduguri, positioning the state as the administrative hub of the Northeast.

The governor gave the assurance when he received the pioneer Chief Executive Officer of the Tax Ombuds of Nigeria, Dr John Nwabueze, who led his management team on a courtesy visit to the Government House in Maiduguri.

“I am pleased to welcome you to Maiduguri, and I want to assure you that the government of Borno State, under my leadership, will provide the needed political will and commitment to supporting your office, with a view to establishing the regional office in Maiduguri,” Zulum said.

To fast-track the process, the governor directed the Tax Ombuds team to link with the Office of the Secretary to the State Government, the Commissioner for Finance, and the State Revenue Service Board to work out modalities for the office’s requirements.

“We shall identify what will cater for your immediate needs, while also looking into sustainable, durable solutions for the medium and long term. In the meantime, we will provide office space to you, inshallah, within the shortest possible time,” he said.

The governor congratulated Dr Nwabueze as the pioneer Chief Executive Officer of the Tax Ombuds of Nigeria, reiterating his willingness to work with the agency.

Speaking on the mandate of the Tax Ombuds of Nigeria, Zulum said the organisation serves as an arbiter between taxpayers and tax authorities, filling a longstanding gap in the country’s tax administration framework.

“We have listened to the mandate of your organisation, as you have briefly mentioned — that you sit between taxpayers and the responsibility for tax collection. You are an arbiter. And I believe such an organisation did not exist in the country before. Even where similar efforts existed, they lacked the full legal backing to undertake this mandate,” the governor said.

The CEO of Tax Ombuds, Dr. John Nwabueze said his visit was to formally introduce himself and his office to the governor following his appointment by the President in June last year.

He described the creation of the office as a pragmatic step by the President to provide relief to Nigerian taxpayers facing disputes and complaints arising from tax and revenue-related issues.

“Our responsibility is to strengthen trust in the tax system by protecting taxpayers’ rights, promoting fairness and transparency, and providing an independent avenue for resolving tax-related complaints. The role I have to play is to be an impartial and fair arbiter in cases involving citizens that have business with the tax and revenue authorities,” Nwabueze said.

Dr Nwabueze commended Governor Zulum for his efforts to restore peace, rebuild communities, and improve education and economic opportunities in the state.

Zulum Pledges Support for Tax Ombuds’ Regional Headquarters in Maiduguri

FG Moves to Mainstream Gender-Responsive Budgeting in 2027 Budget

By: Michael Mike

The Federal Government has stepped up efforts to institutionalise gender-responsive planning and budgeting across ministries, departments and agencies, with the 2027 national budget expected to reflect the new approach.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Deborah Odoh, disclosed this at a capacity-building programme on gender-responsive planning and budgeting, stressing that gender considerations must be embedded throughout the national planning and budgeting cycle.

Odoh said the Budget Office of the Federation had already included gender-responsive planning and budgeting in the guidelines for the 2027 budget, but expressed concern over the low level of response from government institutions.

She said the training of Permanent Secretaries and other senior government officials was expected to improve implementation and ensure that the approach cascades to other levels of the civil service.

“We expect that the 2027 budget will be a reflection of all the things that we have done,” she said, adding that the government was seeking more practical results from the ongoing capacity-building efforts.

According to her, gender-responsive budgeting is critical to ensuring that public resources address the different needs and circumstances of women, men, girls and boys, while promoting equitable development outcomes.

She said the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, with support from UN Women and other development partners, had developed a gender-responsive planning and budgeting framework to guide MDAs in identifying gender gaps, designing appropriate interventions, aligning resources with priorities and establishing measurable indicators.

Odoh stressed that gender-responsive budgeting should not be treated as a standalone initiative but integrated into the entire planning and budgeting process, from policy formulation through monitoring, evaluation and reporting.

She also disclosed that the Federal Government had recently conducted a Renewed Hope Ward Development Survey covering all 8,809 wards across the country.

She said the findings, which are expected to be formally released soon, would help identify development potentials and needs at the ward level and support efforts to ensure that citizens benefit more equitably from public resources.

The Permanent Secretary further called for stronger institutional collaboration, noting that successful implementation could not be achieved by budget or gender departments alone.

She urged planning, budgeting, finance, statistics, programme, monitoring and evaluation units to work together to ensure that gender considerations are reflected in government programmes and expenditure.

Also speaking, UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Beatrice Eyong, said the organisation was working with the Nigerian civil service to institutionalise gender-responsive planning and budgeting.

Eyong said UN Women had signed a memorandum of understanding with the civil service to promote gender-responsive budgeting and an inclusive working environment.

She disclosed that Permanent Secretaries from nearly all ministries, alongside representatives of the Accountant-General and National Bureau of Statistics, had already undergone training, with the initiative now being extended to directors and other civil servants.

According to her, the programme would also be taken to the state level to broaden technical capacity for implementing gender-responsive budgeting.

Eyong said implementation would be monitored under a five-year plan, adding that an “Agenda Report” would provide visibility on ministries, departments and agencies implementing gender-responsive planning and budgeting.

She said the framework also contained monitoring and accountability mechanisms designed to hold government institutions accountable for their commitments.

Eyong explained that the initiative was necessary because many Nigerians remain below the poverty line and public resources must therefore be allocated deliberately according to the different needs and circumstances of citizens.

She said gender-responsive budgeting would help ensure that development benefits were distributed more equitably and that no segment of the population was left behind.

Odoh, who formally declared the two-day capacity-building programme open, urged participating MDAs to use the training to strengthen their capacity to apply gender-disaggregated data, design responsive programmes, link activities to budgetary provisions, establish measurable targets and monitor both expenditure and development outcomes.

She also commended UN Women, the African Development Bank and other development partners for supporting Nigeria’s efforts to strengthen gender-responsive planning and budgeting.

FG Moves to Mainstream Gender-Responsive Budgeting in 2027 Budget

NAPTIP, France move to dismantle human trafficking networks

…New project targets digital recruitment, trafficking proceeds, weak prosecution, cross-border crime

By: Michael Mike

The Federal Government has launched a new regional initiative with France to strengthen Nigeria’s fight against human trafficking, with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) warning that criminal networks are increasingly exploiting digital platforms, irregular migration channels and vulnerable populations to expand their operations.

The PROTECT Regional Project, funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) and implemented by Expertise France, seeks to move Nigeria’s anti-trafficking response beyond the arrest of individual suspects to the disruption of the networks, financial systems and cross-border partnerships that sustain the exploitation of victims.

The five-country intervention, covering Nigeria, Benin, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Togo, was formally launched on Monday in Nigeria at a validation workshop on diagnostic assessments held in Abuja.

Speaking at the event, NAPTIP’s Director-General, Binta Adamu-Bello, said the changing nature of human trafficking required institutions responsible for prevention, investigation, prosecution and victim protection to evolve at the same pace as emerging threats.

She said traffickers were increasingly using social media and other digital platforms to recruit, communicate with and exploit victims, while also taking advantage of economic hardship, unemployment, conflicts, displacement and irregular migration channels.

“Trafficking is no longer confined to identifiable physical locations or traditional recruitment methods,” Adamu-Bello said, stressing that the growing use of technology had made the crime more complex and difficult to combat.

The NAPTIP boss said the agency had intensified public enlightenment across communities, schools, markets, transport corridors, religious institutions and other vulnerable locations, while expanding the use of radio, television and social media to reach young people targeted by traffickers.

She said NAPTIP also continued to provide skills acquisition, educational opportunities, family tracing and sustainable reintegration services for victims and survivors, but acknowledged that more needed to be done.

Adamu-Bello, however, identified delays in the judicial process as a major concern, saying some trafficking cases remained unresolved for extended periods.

She called for greater support from the judiciary and prosecutorial institutions to ensure timely conclusion of cases and effective accountability for perpetrators.

The Director-General said the agency was strengthening its investigative capacity to respond to technology-facilitated recruitment, exploitation and other crimes committed through digital platforms.

But she argued that effective enforcement must also target the financial foundations of trafficking.

According to her, Nigeria’s response must increasingly move beyond arresting individual traffickers to identifying, tracing and recovering the proceeds of trafficking and dismantling the criminal enterprises that finance and sustain exploitation.

“The greatest value of the project will be measured not simply by the number of activities conducted, but by the extent to which it leaves behind stronger institutions, better coordination, improved systems and more effective protection of vulnerable persons and survivors,” she said.

The intervention is built around five major components: strengthening institutional coordination and gender sensitivity; improving the criminal justice chain; preventing trafficking and protecting victims and survivors; enhancing bilateral, cross-border and regional cooperation; and improving the production and analysis of quality data and knowledge.

Adamu-Bello said the project would strengthen digital systems, improve data collection and support evidence-based policy development, operational planning and resource allocation.

She also urged ministries, departments and agencies to integrate anti-trafficking measures into relevant government policies and programmes, stressing that prevention and victim protection must remain part of broader national development efforts.

The NAPTIP boss called on state and local government authorities to strengthen community-level prevention, while urging civil society organisations to continue supporting awareness creation, victim assistance, advocacy, research and community-based interventions.

She tasked the media with responsible reporting that protects the privacy and dignity of victims and survivors, and encouraged traditional and religious leaders to support community awareness and prevention efforts.

“Prevention begins with awareness, vigilance and the willingness to report suspicious activities,” she said.

In his welcome address, NAPTIP’s Director of Research and Programme Development, Josiah Emerole, said the workshop marked the culmination of extensive consultations undertaken during the project’s inception phase.

Emerole said the diagnostic assessments were designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of Nigeria’s existing counter-trafficking challenges and identify areas requiring urgent intervention.

He said the findings reflected the experiences of survivors, frontline practitioners and professionals involved in the fight against trafficking.

According to him, the workshop was expected to produce stakeholder consensus on the proposed Nigerian Action Plan and Theory of Change, as well as prepare the groundwork for formal adoption of the instruments by the PROTECT Nigerian Committee.

He said the committee was scheduled to meet on September 22, 2026, for the formal adoption process.

The PROTECT Regional Project Manager at Expertise France, Modeste Krah, said the workshop marked both the validation of the project’s inception-phase work and the official launch of implementation in Nigeria.

Krah recalled that between 2019 and 2024, Expertise France worked with NAPTIP and other national and international stakeholders under an earlier anti-trafficking project funded by the European Union and France.

He said the partnership produced digital reporting mechanisms, toll-free reporting lines and other interventions aimed at strengthening trafficking prevention and control infrastructure.

He added that the experience also exposed areas requiring additional support and stronger cooperation, leading to the development of PROTECT.

Krah said trafficking networks were becoming increasingly sophisticated and connected to other forms of organised crime, with digital technologies and online platforms being used to recruit and control victims.

He stressed that strong laws and institutions alone were insufficient, calling for stronger inter-agency cooperation, better use of digital information systems, enhanced investigative and prosecutorial capacities, and effective mechanisms for identifying, referring and protecting victims.

He said the diagnostic assessments focused on institutional coordination, governance and asset recovery, digital systems and emerging trafficking trends, and gender considerations.

According to him, the assessments would provide the evidence base for determining priority areas and identifying where the project could provide meaningful support.

Krah emphasised that the validation process was not simply about endorsing reports, but about critically examining findings, challenging assumptions, strengthening the proposed Theory of Change and Action Plan, and ensuring that priorities reflected Nigeria’s realities and institutional needs.

He said the project was not intended to create parallel structures or duplicate existing initiatives, but to strengthen Nigerian institutions, address identified gaps, build sustainable capacity and facilitate cooperation.

Krah also stressed the importance of regional cooperation, noting that human trafficking did not respect national borders.

He said the launch of PROTECT in Nigeria marked a new phase of partnership aimed at delivering tangible, measurable and sustainable results, urging participants to ensure that agreed priorities translated into concrete improvements in trafficking prevention, investigation and prosecution, as well as protection and assistance for victims and survivors.

NAPTIP, France move to dismantle human trafficking networks