The President of the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA) and Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami, at the weekend held his maiden meeting with the CATA Secretariat team in London.
At the meeting, which held at the United Kingdom’s Treasury House, the CATA President was formally briefed by the Secretariat officials on the governance structure of the association as well as on the efforts by the association to serve the common interest of member nations, and create future opportunities, especially in capacity building and creating networks for CATA members
In his remarks, Nami said his three-year tenure would ensure stronger relationships with developmental partners to achieve the short and long term goals and objectives of the association.
He also explored the opportunity of the training organized by the Joint Tax Board of Nigeria in the UK and the CATA inaugural meeting to hold a bilateral meeting with Ms. Antonia Strachey of the Public Finance and Tax Department, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on issues of mutual benefits to the revenue authorities of both countries.
At the meeting were executives of the CATA Secretariat, including the Association’s Executive Director, Duncan Onduru; Vice Chairman, Jon Swerdlow and Megan Jones.
Nami was accompanied to the meeting by Nigeria’s CATA Country Correspondent, Olufemi Olarinde.
In addition, the meeting was also attended by the representatives of the UK Government’s Tax Authority, Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC), including the Head of Capacity Building and International Relations, Fiona Hay; Capacity Building Unit, Mahtab Hashim, and Director of Senior Leadership Programme, Jasmine Taylor,
It would be recalled that Nami was on Friday, October 12, 2021, unanimously elected by the 47 member- countries of CATA as the association’s 15th President during its General Meeting.
The CATA is an accredited association of the Commonwealth, established in 1978 in London, to promote the improvement of tax administration within the Commonwealth with particular emphasis on the developing countries.
