The Securities and Exchange Commission has pledged to work with the steering committee for Project Lighthouse initiative recently inaugurated by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed.

The acting Director-General, SEC, Ms Mary Uduk, who commended the initiative, expressed the commission’s support at the weekend in Abuja, according to a statement on Sunday.

Uduk stressed the need for collaboration among relevant agencies to assist the government in its revenue generation drive, describing the Project Light House as a positive step in that direction.

She said, “It is clear that data and information will certainly aid the generation of more revenue and in the long run, all agencies will be better for it as there will be more resources for government to carry out development.

“Data gathering and sharing is the way to go, especially in this digital age, as when there is available data, information can be shared and that will increase compliance level as well as improve revenue generation.”

According to Uduk, low revenue generation is a source of worry as it will be difficult for government to provide critical infrastructure that will encourage investment in the country.

She pledged the full co-operation of SEC in ensuring the availability of relevant data when needed by the committee.

According to the finance minister, one of the key economic policy objectives of the current administration, as contained in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, is to improve overall Federal Government revenues by targeting and increasing revenues from non-oil revenue sources.

She said, “Despite the fact that we live in a technology and data-centric world, we have not had a culture of using data and information to guide the formulation, implementation and impact assessment of our initiatives and policies.