TheCable

With the aid of an unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) channel created by Fidelity Bank, residents of Lagos state can now pay taxes on their mobile phones.

According to a statement by the bank, the *770# portal would aid efforts being made to increase internally generated revenue and improve challenges encountered with tax payments.

Richard Madiebo, divisional head, retail banking, said the introduction of the USSD for the payment of state taxes would enable the average taxpayer to fulfill his or her obligations to government conveniently.

“This payment option is borne largely from our desire to always provide easy and convenient payment channels to the semi-formal and informal tax markets in Nigeria,” he said.

Zee Agetua, head, enterprise solutions of the bank, said Fidelity Bank is committed to helping Lagos improve its IGR position.

“We are working to institutionalize a robust and efficient revenue collections and payments culture through our partnerships with state government agencies and departments through the years. This is borne out of our conviction that the revenue collections market has indeed huge potentials with increased digitization,” he said.

Explaining how it works, Ifeoma Onibuje, head, e-Banking, said customers are expected to open an account and registration process by dialling *770# on their phones with the numbers linked to their accounts, choose the tax payment option and complete their transactions.

“User safety is also key to Fidelity Bank. We have incorporated an ‘instant blocking’ feature to the platform such that a customer who feels that his or her code has been compromised can disable the service immediately using any other phone.”