The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has named Tunde Fowler, Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, as a member of the International Experts Committee on Tax Matters.

The committee has 25 members worldwide.

Mr. Fowler’s appointment was conveyed by Bolaji Akinremi, Minister Plenipotentiary of Nigeria Permanent Mission, New York, in a mail to the FIRS.

Mr. Akinremi, in a mail to the FIRS, said: “I have great joy to inform you that the UN Secretary-General, H.E Antonio Guterres, has appointed Mr. Babatunde Fowler as one of the 25 members of the prestigious International Experts Committee on Tax Matters for a four-year tenure to commence at the inauguration ceremony in Geneva on 1 October 2017. In addition to the notification of the appointment by the SG to the UN Economic Council already placed on the website of the Council, individual letters of appointment would be addressed to the appointee and the appointee is to formally accept the nomination through a letter of acceptance addressed to the UNSG through the Nigeria Permanent Mission New York. Please, express the heartfelt congratulations of the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, Ambassador Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, to Mr. Williams Babatunde Fowler on his appointment and a warm wish for a successful tenure.”

Mr. Fowler, who is also the Chairman of the African Tax Administration, Forum, ATAF, and the Joint Tax Board, JTB, was Chairman, Lagos Internal Revenue Service, LIRS. His sterling performance in Lagos led to a sharp rise in Internally Generated Revenue from an average of N3.6 billion monthly, as at January 2006, to an average of over N23 billion monthly as at June 2015.

Despite a challenging economy, with oil at under $50 per dollars for most part of 2016 and a sliding purchasing power, Mr. Fowler led FIRS to realise over N3.303 trillion in 2016.

With Mr. Fowler’s leadership, the FIRS got the ATAF Award for the best Innovation in Africa, with the FIRS e-Stamp Duty solution, while the Chartered Institute of Taxation, Ghana, CITG, honoured Mr. Fowler as a fellow of the institute.

FIRS recently introduced six payment solutions: e-Registration, e-Stamp Duty, e-tax pay, Remita, e-Receipt, e-filing and e-Tax Clearance Certificate e-TCC- to make tax payment easy as ABC, anytime, anywhere.