The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Babatunde Fowler as chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS.
Mr. Fowler was appointed acting chairman of the agency by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 20 to replace Samuel Odugbesan, a former coordinating director at the agency, who was appointed to the position by former President Goodluck Jonathan in March this year.

The new FIRS boss was the executive chairman of the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue from 2005 to 2014.
He had his higher education in the United States where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Business Administration degree from the California State University.

Before joining the service of the Lagos State Government, Mr. Fowler worked in the banking sector for about 20 years with long stints at Credit Lyonnais Nigeria Limited and Chartered Bank.

Under his leadership, the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue achieved a sharp increase in internally generated revenue from an average of N3.6 billion per month in January 2006, to an average of about N20.5 billion per month in 2013.

The FIRS has not had a substantive chairman since the departure of Ifueko Omogui-Okauru in 2012.
Kabir Mashi succeeded Omogui-Okauru in acting capacity and remained in that capacity till March 2015.