President Bola Tinubu has inaugurated the Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms with a mandate to address the challenges facing the economy.
The President gave the committee a target to improve Nigeria’s revenue profile while making the business environment more conducive and internationally-competitive to support sustainable development, noting that a sound fiscal policy environment and a fit-for-purpose tax system were critical for the effective functioning of government and the economy.
For the job, President Tinubu selected what anybody would term as the best heads in the tax and economy sector in the country.
Among the select few chosen to fashion out a policy that will give Nigeria’s economy a strong shot in the arm is Wale Akinterinwa, banker, accountant, public administrator and Ondo State commissioner finance.
With him in the saddle as the chief manager of the economy in Ondo state, Akinterinwa assembled a crack team led by Tolu Adegbie, Chairman, Ondo State Internal Revenue Service, a body that successfully streamlined the state’s tax landscape and invigorated revenue generations, such that has never been witnessed in the history of the state.
His dynamic profile captivates attention. His work experience and achievements over the years can hardly be ignored by anyone, particularly in finance and economy.
Recall that Akinterinwa was tapped by Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu in 2017 to help manage the state finances of the state and put it in better shape after a perilous past. At the time, the state’s monthly internally generated revenue was put at around N600 million or less. But the story has changed, and the state mow boasts of internally generated revenue ranging between N3 billion and more. An uncommon leader, Akinterinwa often gives credits to Adegbie and his team, while glowingly appreciating his boss, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, governor of Ondo State, for providing him the platform to excel.
Without iota of doubt, Akinterinwa has given a good account of himself as a corporate finance professional, with strong managerial, strategy, finance and accounting background with more than 25 years of excellent training, strategic leadership, mentoring and entrepreneurial prowess in diverse areas of investment banking, project finance and management, venture capital, real estate development, finance and management consulting and public sector engagement.
Indeed, President Tinubu has once again, demonstrated his capacity to fish out talents and identify people with requisite capacities.
A strategic thinker and Charismatic leader, Akinterinwa is the chairman of the Forum of Commissioners of Finance in Nigeria. The forum, consisting of the 36 states finance commissioners in Nigeria, picked Akinterinwa as chairman as a result of his sterling performance in managing the economy of Ondo State.
Akinterinwa and other members of the committee are expected to give Nigeria a tax policy that will be focussed on turning Nigeria into a lender and not a borrower nation.
Meanwhile, congratulatory messages have continued to pour in for the cerebral accountant on his inclusion in Tinubu’s Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms.
In a statement signed by Tola Gbadamosi and Oluwatosin Ighoteguono, Chairperson and Secretary of Ondo State chapter of National Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ, Akinterinwa’s appointment was described as ” Well-deseved, owing to his professional expertise, track record, wealth of experience and doggedness”
In the same vein, Niran Sule-Akinsuyi, former Commissioner for Special Duties in Ondo State said, in a congratulatory message, “Wale Akinterinwa is an asset and a great treasure. We are happy that he is being recognised at the national level”. Also, a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Tunji Fabiyi said Akinterinwa’s appointment ” justifies the qualities ascribed to him by his supporters…he is a brilliant banker, a polished politician and strategic thinker, always bringing out solutions to every problem”
