Nigeria wants to stop being lax about tax

Paying income tax used to be a joke in Nigeria which, no wonder, has the worst tax to GDP ratio in sub-Saharan Africa.

As one banking executive put it: "In Nigeria, the government pretends to tax people and people pretend to pay. That's the Nigerian social contract."

But these days it's no laughing matter, as an ambitious government scheme designed to make the executive class pay up draws to a close.

Millions of people for the first time are now coughing up taxes as President Muhammadu Buhari's government conducts one of the country's most vigorous collection drives in years.

The money is desperately needed. Widening Nigeria's tax base will help boost non-oil revenue in Africa's largest economy, which is limping out of its worst recession in 25 years.

And Nigeria has a long way to go. Its current tax-to-gross domestic product ratio is just 5.9 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund.

In Lagos alone, there are 6,800 millionaires and 360 multi-millionaires, according to a 2017 report by AfrAsia Bank. But top earners hardly lead by example.

In 2016, just 241 people paid more than 20 million naira ($55,600, 47,400 euros) in personal income taxes, the Nigerian finance ministry reported.

It's not hard to see why Nigerians would be reluctant to pay tax to fund public services, when there has been no visible return.

Infrastructure in most cities is disintegrating. Roads between states are crumbling. People pay for their own electricity and water.

Endemic corruption is partly to blame, said the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II, one of Nigeria's leading Islamic figures who served as central bank governor in the previous administration.