Wale Elegbede 
A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Dr Olisa Agbakoba, (SAN), yesterday, said that Nigeria should explore other sources of revenue that have the potential to add almost N100 trillion revenue to the country’s coffers. He said that would also fill the budget deficit of about N7 trillion in 2021 fiscal year.
Agbakoba gave the advice in a letter addressed to the President Muhammadu Buhari in view of the challenge of raising revenue to fill a budget deficit of about N7 trillion in the 2021 fiscal year, stating that one area of great interest that can generate revenue is the maritime sector and more specifically, Apapa port city.
The Senior Advocate cited a recent report by a Dutch consultancy firm, Dynanmar, that shows that Nigeria loses N20 billion daily at the ports, which is N7.2 trillion yearly. He said: “The second area that can also generate substantial income has to do with trade facilitation.
Trade is Nigeria’s secondlargest contributor to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but it is shocking that Nigeria lacks the critical and essential tools of trade facilitation, which are vessels and airlines.
“So legislation is proposed to introduce the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) and Air Nigeria. If our local content policy and laws are implemented in terms of trade facilitation, Nigeria can generate over N20 trillion and 10 million jobs in 5 years. “The third area concerns land administration.
A recent study shows that the housing inventory of Nigerian property probably exceeds $ 7 trillion but most of this is dead capital that cannot be used as collateral for financial transactions because they are not properly titled.
“Creating an efficient titling system by introducing a Land Use Administration Act will release a lot of revenue into the system.