The table above shows the revenues of 15 companies on the Fortune 500 list. These companies produce different goods and services exported to Nigeria and other parts of the world from America. The total profit for these 15 companies according to Fortune 500 in 2010 is USD106,747,000,000.00. The corporate tax these companies paid to the American government ranges from 15-35%. With an average of 25% corporate tax, these 15 companies will be paying USD26,686,750,000.00 to the government of America from their revenue in 2010. It is therefore interesting to note that the Naira equivalent of the total sum of these corporate tax paid by just 15 companies to the American government is NGN 4,003,012,500,000.00.
The federal government of Nigeria presented a budget of 4.236 trillion naira to the National Assembly in December 2010. This figure is equivalent to what just 15 companies are paying in corporate tax to the US government in one year.
The last column of the table above shows the products and services rendered by these companies. These are products that most Nigerians and other people around the world use from time to time. This goes a long way to show that, these American companies export these products to us in Nigeria and other parts of the world and take all the dollars back to America from which their government enjoys so much from taxation.
Therefore, if we really want to grow our economy, create employment, diversify the government sources of income, then there is need for as many Nigerians as possible to be involved in export of various Nigerian products ranging from Solid Minerials, Agriculrural Commodities and the products of small manufactures like shea butter, leather etc.
We can start by exporting raw materials and as the business grows we can move on to begin to export semi-processed goods and finally finished goods like the companies listed in the table above.
No comments:
Post a Comment