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Payroll and accounting technology firm, Sage has said that it is willing to work with the Nigerian government in its efforts to automate tax administration in Nigeria.
The company made this known in Lagos at a recent launch of Sage One updated version.
Speaking to BusinessDay at a media parley, senior representatives of the company’s subsidiary in Nigeria commended the federal government for the steps it has taken so far to bring millions of Nigerians under the tax net.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) recently announced the introduction of six new electronic tax services aimed at ensuring that key tax processes are automated in order to improve transparency, ease and speed of tax administration for both tax payers and tax administrators.
Sage One, it explained, is an easy to use online accounting and payroll software that supports entrepreneurs and small businesses. The new version comes with Sage One Accounting and Sage One Payroll.
“Sage One is our cloud solution for administering payroll and payroll taxes for start-ups and small businesses in Nigeria. It is truly a cloud solution from end-to-end,” said Magnus Nmonwu, Regional Director Sage West Africa.
Nikki Summers, Director SageOne East Africa & West Africa noted that although other countries, particularly in Africa, were light years ahead of Nigeria in terms of payroll legislation, Nigeria can still catch up.
“If and when the government does roll out the platform where they want people to do online tax submissions, we have the functionality within the product to be able to do that. We are already doing that in Kenya.
“We launched the payroll and the accounting and they have similar a platform – the iTax platform, which is exactly what the Nigerian government is trying to adopt. That functionality is there and when the government is ready to roll that up we will be able to make it available,” she said.
The company outlined several benefits that users of Sage One platform can get. For instance, on Sage One Accounting there is the ease of invoicing. A company can make their invoice look more professional by creating quotes and invoices in a flash. Customers can also track their business using the customised dashboards.
Furthermore, users can easily link their bank account to Sage One Accounting where their bank transactions will be updated daily.
Sage One Payroll on other hand helps businesses generate tax certificates in one simple step – generally stay FIRS compliant. It also gives a clear picture of a company’s monthly leave transactions in a calendar view.
Companies can also generate NHF, NHIS, Pension and PAYE reports electronically for quick and easy submissions using Sage One Payroll.
“This product is very secure and we have got over 500 users on Sage One Accounting at the moment and since the launch of Sage One Accounting in Nigeria we have not had any case of data breach. There are heavy security built around it and Sage in itself has taken steps to ensure that it has the necessary security around its data infrastructure. The escalation protocols are available in the event of one data centre failing,” Nmonwu said.
