Jennifer Ugwueke
Nigerians will now be required to pay stamp duty on house rent agreements and Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) in line with a new directive of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
The spokesperson for the FIRS, Abdullahi Ahmed made the disclosure in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, July 2.
He said the federal government has mandated Nigerians to pay stamp duty on house rent agreements, urging Nigerians to ensure that documents pertaining to rent or lease agreements for their homes or offices are subjected to authentication with the new FIRS adhesive stamp duty.
Ahmad also stated that the stamp duty charge should also be subjected to other common business-related transactions. He pointed out that the new FIRS adhesive stamp duty is necessary in order to give the instruments the force of law and make them legally binding on all parties involved in such transactions. The spokesperson disclosed that the new FIRS adhesive stamp duty was recently introduced by the government.
A breakdown of the data indicates that the total number of bank accounts grew astronomically to 160 million from 125 million, which represents a growth of 78.1 percent. According to the data, the number of active accounts also grew by 32.1 million in 5 months from 79.4 million active accounts in January to 111.5 million by the end of May.
Experts say this development may be connected with the lockdown which saw a greater dependence on alternative banking channels. The number of active accounts for the last five months is far greater than the average of 74 million active accounts between January and December 2019. However, the data also revealed a negative growth in current accounts as it witnessed a drop of 108 thousand accounts between January and May. The total current account in January was 25.2 million, while it dropped to 25.1 million. The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the Nigerian economy has prompted the rollout of new economic policies, aimed at revamping the country’s economy, create jobs and wealth for the citizens.