Cross River government, gaming industry to deploy digital technology for taxation

The Cross River State Government and the gaming industry are collaborating to deploy technology for effective collection of withholding tax.

The decision was reached at a one-day stakeholders’ sensitization meeting with major players in the gaming industry in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, southern Nigeria.

At the forum, the chairman of the Cross River State Board of Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Akpanke Ogar while speaking on technological development in the gaming industry said, “our idea is to interact with the partners on the gaming programme. We are looking for a workable partnership; their tax rates are not renewed because what they paid two years ago is what they are still paying.”

Ogar hinted that the state government was considering ways of integrating revenue collection through a third party arrangement on the gaming platform as well as introduce a WhatsApp Module for collecting Withholding Taxes on Commissions and Bonuses from Pools Betting Agents and ensure compliance with taxpayer obligation.

Representatives of a key gamer Premiere Lotto also referred to as ‘Baba Ijebu’, Mr. Ken Nwankwo and Mr. Noah Onyilaran argued that the introduction of a third party would compromise the digital platform used by operators in the gaming industry.

The representatives further argued that utilizing a third party would affect security and confidentiality of clients on the different gaming sites.

Nwankwo said, “using technology is good because we are in the age of technology. But, our concern is fraud and hackers who will sabotage the process.”

Onyilaran also stated that, “if the state government want to deal with the operators directly it is good. But we are not comfortable with third party. We have spent billions of naira to build our system and cannot allow someone, who wants to make some money to plug into it; that is our problem. What we are saying is the security of our system and integrity of gaming because it is a high risk business. We cannot allow anyone to just plug in and out because the system could be compromised. Compromising your system for 3 seconds can wreck the operation just like what recently happen to another company Net9ija,” he argued.

He further urged the Cross River government to test and validate their third party system first as well as continue the engagement with major players.

In a presentation, the Head of Pools Unit in the Cross River Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Peter Ikpa said that the agency was creating awareness on changes in the regulatory environment.

Ikpa assured the operators of the commitment of the revenue generating agency to secure the data of clients, adding that the third party firm was aware of the dangers and would provide expert services to mitigate external threats.