219 Kwara schools participate in N5m tax competition

A total number of 219 secondary schools from both public and private schools in the 16 local government areas of Kwara State participated in the 2022 Tax Club Quiz competition organized by the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS).

Speaking at the grand finale of the competition in Ilorin on Thursday, the executive chairman of the service, Mrs. Shade Omoniyi, said that the competition was designed to nurture tax-compliant generations through deliberate exposure to rudiments of taxation right from the secondary school till taxable adulthood.

At the end of the competition, Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Christ Secondary School, Ilorin won the first prize of N2.5million, while Mustapha Standard School, Offa got N1.5million for coming second and College of Education, Oro Model Secondary School came Third with N1million prize. All six participating schools in the final rounds also received consolation prizes.

Mrs. Omoniyi said that the competition is an aspect of Community Impact Programmes (CIP) of the service, adding that the 2022 edition was a great improvement over a total number of 142 participants last year.

Also speaking, the state’s deputy governor, Mr. Kayode Alabi, expressed the need to proactively invest in tax practice and administration in order to build a virile environment to make the business of taxation thrive at all levels of endeavours.

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The deputy governor, who urged people to always play their part in building a virile environment by paying their tax, said that the issue of taxation is what everyone should be thinking, “because we can only be in the category of a tax administrator, tax practitioner or tax payer.”

In her remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said that the main objective of the competition was to prepare younger generations ahead of future challenges of tax
collections.

The permanent secretary, who described the theme of the competition, “RAISING A GENERATION OF TAX COMPLIANCE CITIZENS” as suitable, said that the competition would equally create awareness that, “raising future younger tax compliance citizens starts now.”

She commended the KWIRS for supporting the educative and intellectual project that started in April, 2016, adding that the School Club Quiz Competition project is a good thinking in a right direction.

“I, therefore, assure you that the Ministry will continue to give support for the realization of the set objectives of this brilliant project.”