NRS Awards N5.75m to Tagline Competition Winners

The Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) has awarded N5.75 million in cash prizes to four staff members who emerged winners of its internal tagline competition.

The competition produced the agency’s new tagline, “Inspiring Trust, Sustaining Growth”, which was unveiled in Abuja on Thursday.

The overall winner received N2.5 million, while the first runner-up received N1.5 million. The second and third runners-up were awarded N1 million and N750,000 respectively.

The Group Director, Transformation and Strategy at the NRS, Mr Alfred Okoh, said the competition was launched on August 10, inviting staff to suggest how the agency should be perceived.

He said the exercise attracted 3,308 submissions within six working days, which were assessed based on strategic alignment, originality, clarity and memorability.

According to him, the entries were subsequently reduced to 112, then 85, before seven finalists were presented to a committee of tax controllers, after which management selected the top four.

Okoh said the new tagline reflected the transition from the former Federal Inland Revenue Service to the broader revenue administration mandate of the NRS.

He said the agency was no longer focused solely on taxes, as its mandate also covered non-tax revenues under the new tax law.

Okoh said the NRS was being developed as a modern, integrated, technology-enabled, data-driven and responsive institution, but stressed that technology, branding and a new tagline alone could not transform revenue administration.

The Chief of Staff to the NRS Executive Chairman, Mr Tayo Koleosho, said the agency expected to meet its revenue target for the year without increasing tax rates, citing improvements in tax administration and digitalisation.

He identified electronic invoicing and the agency’s digital tax payment system as some of the initiatives being implemented to improve efficiency and reduce the time businesses spend complying with their tax obligations.

Koleosho also said taxpayer trust would depend on the protection of data, fair assessments and professional revenue collection.

He added that the NRS was implementing an 80/20 policy under which 80 per cent of its operations would be carried out internally, supported by staff training and skills development.

The Director of Change Management at the NRS, Ms Adenike Adegoke, said the competition was designed as a collaborative exercise to ensure that the agency’s identity was shaped by its employees.