Taxation and the Social Contract in Nigeria Workshop

Oxford Department of International Development will be hosting a workshop on taxation and the social contract in Nigeria. This promises to be a day of engaging presentations and lively discussion focusing on a topical and important issue. Admission is free. Those wishing to attend should contact Dr Oliver Owen

9.00am: Session 1: Technocrats and politicians – the politics of revenue reforms.

• Olly Owen: Notes on the politics of state taxation
• Kehinde Olayode: The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Political Economy of Tax Reforms in Nigeria
• Diane de Gramont: Financing the Megacity: Tax Reform in Lagos, Nigeria Since 1999.
• Nic Cheeseman: Taxation and the Social Contract in Lagos.

Chair: Raufu Mustapha

11.00am: Break

11.30am: Session 2: Formality and informality – tax and state power in the city.

• Leah Gatt: Taxation and the Social Contract in Lagos
• Shelby Grossman: The politics of order in informal markets: Evidence from Lagos Adrienne LeBas: The Origins of Voluntary Compliance: Tax Attitudes in Urban Nigeria
• Kate Meagher: 'Taxing Times: Religious Conflict, Taxation and the Informal Economy in Nigeria'

Chair TBC

1.30pm: Lunch

2.30pm: Session 3: Petro-states and peasants - tax reforms in comparative context.

• Emily Anderson: 'Tax and statebuilding in postcolonial Angola and Mozambique (1975-2013)
• Tim Gibbs: The Rise and Fall of Peasant Taxation in South Africa from Cecil Rhodes to Thabo Mbeki.
• Gavin Williams: Comments on tax in the history of Northern and Southern Nigeria.  

Chair: Ricardo Soares de Oliveira

4.00pm: Closing comments and thanks.

• Olly Owen

4.30pm: Drinks