The Executive Chairman of the National Revenue Service, Mr Zach Adedeji, has said Nigeria’s 2026 tax reforms have positioned the service to generate N40.7 trillion in taxes and royalties.
Adedeji disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja while speaking at a roundtable organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations for key stakeholders in the financial sector.
According to him, the projected revenue reflects the impact of recent reforms that transferred petroleum and solid mineral royalties, alongside other revenue streams, to the National Revenue Service.
“In light of the tax reforms transferring petroleum and mineral royalties and other revenues to the NRS, the total target is N40.7 trillion,” Adedeji said.
“We believe that with the support of the House, we will achieve what we have proposed.”
Strong 2025 Performance
The NRS chairman also highlighted the agency’s strong performance in 2025, noting that it exceeded its revenue target by a wide margin.
He said the service generated N28.23 trillion in 2025, surpassing its target of N25.2 trillion.
“Compared with 2024, we collected N6.5 trillion more in 2025, representing a 30.3 per cent increase, driven largely by non-oil taxes,” he stated.
Finance Minister Explains Reform Rationale
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, said Nigeria had previously relied heavily on Ways and Means financing to cover large fiscal deficits.
He added that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company had been funding petrol subsidies through an under-recovery arrangement, which he described as unsustainable.
Edun said the government was compelled to address these structural distortions and replace them with market-based solutions, leading to the current wave of fiscal and tax reforms.
Lawmakers Seek Clarity on Revenue Projections
The Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Rep. Abubakar Bichi (APC–Kano), said the roundtable was organised to allow lawmakers to engage directly with the presidential economic team on the 2026 Appropriation Bill.
“This is for us to study, consider and approve the request. We decided to engage the President’s team on 2025 performance and the 2026 proposal,” Bichi said.
He added that lawmakers also engaged the NRS leadership to gain clarity on the ambitious 2026 revenue projections.
“In 2025, we achieved about N28 trillion against a N25 trillion target. We need more information so Nigerians can understand what is going on,” he said.
By the start of 2026, the Nigerian economy had crossed a critical psychological threshold. For millions of households, survival, not prosperity, had become the central economic concern. Food prices climbed relentlessly, transportation costs ballooned, electricity tariffs rose, and the naira’s weakness continued to hollow out purchasing power. Wages, meanwhile, remained stubbornly stagnant. In one word: Nigeria’s cost-of-living crisis swirl.
This is the economic terrain into which President Bola Tinubu’s administration has launched Nigeria’s most aggressive fiscal overhaul in decades. Framed as reform, sold as necessity, and defended as inevitability, the new tax regime arrives not as a technocratic adjustment but as an additional burden on a population already stretched to its limits.
The question confronting Nigerians in 2026 is no longer whether reform is needed, but who bears the cost, and who decides how much pain is acceptable.
Reform in the Middle of Hardship
The removal of fuel subsidies unleashed a cascade of price increases that reverberated through every sector of the economy. Transport fares surged, food inflation accelerated, and informal businesses, already operating on thin margins, struggled to survive. Electricity tariff hikes followed, further eroding household incomes and raising production costs. Currency policy adjustments compounded the crisis, making imports more expensive and local substitutes scarcer.
Rather than pause to stabilize living conditions, the government pressed ahead with sweeping tax reforms. For many Nigerians, the timing alone felt punitive: a state demanding more at the precise moment its citizens had less to give.
A New Tax Regime, Old Trust Deficit
The overhaul rests on four major laws that replace Nigeria’s chaotic tax framework with a centralized, digitally monitored system. On paper, the logic is compelling: fewer taxes, better enforcement, broader compliance. In reality, centralization without trust risks becoming coercion by another name.
Progressive tax bands and exemptions for low-income earners are cited as evidence of fairness. Yet the lived experience tells a different story. Middle-income Nigerians comprising, civil servants, professionals, and small traders, are watching their take-home pay shrink as inflation bites and long-standing reliefs disappear. What remains is a widening gap between what the state demands and what it delivers.
“Widening the Net” or Tightening the Noose?
Officials insist the reforms are about widening the tax net rather than increasing the burden. But a net cast over a struggling economy does not magically become lighter because it is broader. When energy costs soar, food prices spike, and wages lag inflation, taxation, no matter how elegantly designed, feels punitive.
The promise that higher revenue will eventually translate into better schools, hospitals, and infrastructure rings hollow in a country where decades of oil wealth failed to produce durable public value. Nigerians have heard this argument before. Each time, they were asked to be patient. Each time, patience yielded diminishing returns.
VAT and Regional Fault Lines: Old Battles, New Weapons
No element of Tinubu’s tax reset better exposes Nigeria’s unresolved national question than the proposed restructuring of the Value Added Tax (VAT) sharing formula. Presented by the government as a neutral, efficiency-driven move toward derivation, the reform has instead resurrected the ghosts of Nigeria’s most bitter fiscal conflicts, conflicts never resolved, only postponed. By tilting VAT allocation more decisively toward where consumption and economic activity are recorded, the reform overwhelmingly favours Lagos and a handful of commercially dominant states in the South-West. Lagos’s outsized contribution to VAT revenue is frequently cited to justify this shift. The logic is straightforward: where revenue is generated, revenue should remain.
But Nigeria’s history warns that straightforward logic often produces dangerous outcomes. In the First Republic, a strong derivation principle allowed regions to retain up to 50 percent of revenues from cocoa, groundnuts, and palm produce. That system collapsed not because derivation was inefficient, but because widening regional disparities turned it into a political weapon. The fiscal tensions it generated contributed to the instability that ended civilian rule.
After the civil war, military governments centralized revenue sharing not out of ideological preference, but because national survival required redistribution. Oil revenues were pooled to hold a fractured country together, not to reward efficiency. The VAT debate now retraces that path, without the trauma that once forced compromise.
Many Northern states, heavily dependent on VAT allocations to fund basic services, see the reform not as fiscal federalism but as fiscal punishment. Their argument is blunt: productivity cannot be rewarded fairly in a country where productivity itself has been shaped by decades of uneven federal investment, insecurity, and policy bias. When ports, rail lines, industrial clusters, and financial infrastructure are concentrated in one region, derivation ceases to be neutral, it becomes structural exclusion.
The echoes of the Niger Delta struggle are unmistakable. For decades, oil-producing communities watched wealth flow to Abuja while bearing the environmental and social costs of extraction. Today, roles appear reversed: commercially dominant states demand to keep what they generate, while poorer regions warn that redistribution, the glue of the federation, is being quietly dismantled.
The federal government’s response, that states should simply “grow their economies,” rings hollow in regions battling insurgency, banditry, collapsing education systems, and mass poverty. Growth is not summoned by rhetoric; it is enabled by security, infrastructure, and human capital, public goods that require funding in the first place. History is unambiguous: Nigeria’s most destabilizing crises often begin as revenue disputes disguised as technical reforms. When groups feel fiscally cornered, resistance follows, political, legal, and sometimes worse. Wether anyone agrees or not, a VAT regime that sharpens inequality without robust equalization mechanisms is not reform, it is deferred instability. The question therefore becomes, wether Nigeria is prepared for another combustive civil disorder?
The Lagos Model Goes National
The reforms unmistakably bear the imprint of the Lagos model that is notorious for its centralized authority, digital surveillance, and uncompromising enforcement. In Lagos, this model thrived on a dense commercial base and a large formal sector. Nationally, it risks flattening Nigeria’s economic diversity into a one-size-fits-all template.
Equally corrosive is the perception, fair or not, that fiscal power is increasingly concentrated within a narrow regional and ideological circle. In a federation where legitimacy depends on balance as much as performance, perception alone can be politically fatal.
A Dangerous Gamble
The tax reforms underpin President Tinubu’s ₦58 trillion 2026 Budget of Consolidation, a document that demands sacrifice now in exchange for promises later. But for Nigerians already suffocating under inflation, those promises feel remote and uncertain. This is the administration’s gamble: that Nigerians will endure sustained hardship on faith. Yet faith is precisely what the Nigerian state has depleted over decades of broken promises, opaque governance, and squandered revenues. Moreover, who shall have faith in your promises when it amounts to telling an economically distressed populace to fast while you, your family members and a few rogue elite feast?
Tax reform without visible accountability is extraction.
Ultimately, the success of Tinubu’s tax reset will not be decided in policy papers or revenue charts. It will be decided in markets, transport hubs, and households where people calculate daily whether survival is still possible.
Without transparency, fairness, and immediate, visible improvements in public services, this reform risks doing more than failing. It risks hardening public cynicism, weakening compliance, and pushing an already fragile social contract toward a breaking point. As it is often asserted, Nigeria does not lack reform ideas. What it lacks is a state that convinces its citizens that reform is being done with them, not to them.
President Bola Tinubu has instructed his Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Usman, to work with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to coordinate the recommendations of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee for swift implementation across all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.
This directive was issued during a meeting with the Chairman of the reforms committee, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, who presented a 30-day report on “quick wins” at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, revealed that President Tinubu met with Mr. Zack Adedeji, the Acting Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, and Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, the Chairman of the tax policy review committee.
The President emphasized the need for effective synergy in implementing tax policy recommendations across government institutions.
President Tinubu has also prioritized the recommendations of the tax policy review committee at the next Federal Executive Council meeting scheduled for Monday, October 30, 2023. The aim is to expand the tax net, reach the 18% tax-to-GDP threshold, and enhance public service provision without burdening vulnerable segments of the population.
The Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, established on July 7, 2023, is responsible for tax law reform, fiscal policy coordination, harmonization of taxes, and revenue administration. Its mission is to improve tax morale, promote a healthy tax culture, and encourage voluntary compliance with tax regulations by utilizing tax and other revenues effectively.
On the occasion of Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Day celebration, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday morning addressed the nation with a message of hope, unity, and commitment to a better future.
In his maiden Independence Day speech, Tinubu acknowledged the sacrifices of Nigeria’s founding fathers and emphasized the importance of democracy, reform, and economic development.
He also outlined his administration’s efforts to address the challenges facing the nation, especially in the context of recent economic reforms. This article provides an overview of President Tinubu’s address, highlighting key points and policy initiatives.
Unity in Diversity
President Tinubu began his address by acknowledging Nigeria’s rich diversity in ethnicity, religion, culture, and tradition. He praised the nation’s unity despite its diversity, emphasizing that Nigeria’s strength lies in its ability to forge ahead as one indivisible unit. He called on all Nigerians to cherish and love their country, emphasizing that Nigeria belongs to each and every citizen.
Commitment to Democracy
Reflecting on Nigeria’s democratic journey, President Tinubu celebrated the country’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law. He acknowledged the recent election that led to his presidency, highlighting that Nigeria had elected its 7th consecutive civilian government. This, he stated, is evidence of Nigeria’s unwavering commitment to democratic principles.
Economic Reforms and Fuel Subsidy
President Tinubu acknowledged the economic challenges facing Nigeria and the necessity of bold reforms to secure the nation’s future prosperity. He explained that his administration had made the difficult decision to end the fuel subsidy, despite the hardships it had caused. He argued that these reforms were necessary to build a strong foundation for Nigeria’s future and ensure that the nation’s wealth benefits all citizens, rather than a select few.
Wage Increase and Grassroots Development
To alleviate the economic burden on ordinary Nigerians, Tinubu announced a provisional wage increment for low-grade workers.
Over the next six months, these workers would receive an additional Twenty-Five Thousand naira per month. Additionally, Tinubu said his administration had established an Infrastructure Support Fund for states to invest in critical areas and provide relief packages against rising prices.
Transportation Reforms
The President outlined significant transportation reforms aimed at lowering transport costs and making the economy more robust. He said that the Federal Government had introduced cheaper and safer Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses, which would operate at a fraction of current fuel prices, positively affecting transport fares. This initiative would not only lower costs but also create new opportunities for transport operators and entrepreneurs.
Central Bank Reforms
Tinubu announced ongoing reforms in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to address past lapses and prevent future occurrences. A new leadership for the CBN had been constituted, and a special investigator was working on presenting findings regarding past issues. Monetary policy would henceforth benefit all Nigerians and not just a privileged few.
Tax Reforms and Investment Funding
Recognizing the importance of wise tax policy, President Tinubu inaugurated a Committee on Tax Reforms to improve tax administration and address fiscal policies hindering economic growth. Furthermore, investment funding for enterprises with great potential had been provided to boost employment and urban incomes. The government was also increasing investment in micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
Social Safety Net
To protect vulnerable households, the President announced an expansion of cash transfer programs to an additional 15 million households. This initiative aimed to provide a social safety net and alleviate the impact of rising food and commodity prices.
Insecurity
President Tinubu assured Nigerians of his administration’s commitment to ensuring their safety and security. He highlighted increased inter-service collaboration, intelligence sharing, and efforts to rebuild the capacities of security services. The sacrifices of the security forces in preserving national security were acknowledged and honoured.
Inclusivity in Appointments
The President emphasized that key appointments would be made in accordance with the Constitution and with fairness to all Nigerians. He assured that women, youth, and the physically challenged would continue to receive due consideration in these appointments.
Acknowledgments and Unity
President Tinubu expressed gratitude to the National Assembly and the judiciary for their roles in Nigeria’s democracy. He also commended civil society organizations and labour unions for their dedication in the struggle for a better Nigeria.
In closing, he called on all Nigerians to embrace courage, compassion, and commitment as they collectively work towards a better Nigeria.
See Full Address Below:
ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU, GCFR, PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 63RD INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY OF NIGERIA ON SUNDAY, 1ST OCTOBER, 2023
Dear Compatriots,
It is my unique honour to address you on this day, the 63rd anniversary of our nation’s independence, both as the President of our dear country and, simply, as a fellow Nigerian.
On this solemn yet hopeful day, let us commend our founding fathers and mothers. Without them, there would be no modern Nigeria. From the fading embers of colonialism, their activism, dedication and leadership gave life to the belief in Nigeria as a sovereign and independent nation.
Let us, at this very moment, affirm that as Nigerians, we are all endowed with the sacred rights and individual gifts that God has bestowed on us as a nation and as human beings. No one is greater or lesser than the other. The triumphs that Nigeria has achieved shall define us. The travails we have endured shall strengthen us. And no other nation or power on this earth shall keep us from our rightful place and destiny. This nation belongs to you, dear people. Love and cherish it as your very own.
Nigeria is remarkable in its formation and essential character. We are a broad and dynamic blend of ethnic groups, religions, traditions and cultures. Yet, our bonds are intangible yet strong, invisible yet universal. We are joined by a common thirst for peace and progress, by the common dream of prosperity and harmony and by the unifying ideals of tolerance and justice.
Forging a nation based on the fair application of these noble principles to a diverse population has been a task of significant blessing but also serial challenge. Some people have said an independent Nigeria should never have come into existence. Some have said that our country would be torn apart. They are forever mistaken. Here, our nation stands and here we shall remain.
This year, we passed a significant milestone in our journey to a better Nigeria. By democratically electing a 7th consecutive civilian government, Nigeria has proven that commitment to democracy and the rule of law remains our guiding light.
At my inauguration, I made important promises about how I would govern this great nation. Among those promises, were pledges to reshape and modernize our economy and to secure the lives, liberty and property of the people.
I said that bold reforms were necessary to place our nation on the path of prosperity and growth. On that occasion, I announced the end of the fuel subsidy.
I am attuned to the hardships that have come. I have a heart that feels and eyes that see. I wish to explain to you why we must endure this trying moment. Those who sought to perpetuate the fuel subsidy and broken foreign exchange policies are people who would build their family mansion in the middle of a swamp. I am different. I am not a man to erect our national home on a foundation of mud. To endure, our home must be constructed on safe and pleasant ground.
Reform may be painful, but it is what greatness and the future require. We now carry the costs of reaching a future Nigeria where the abundance and fruits of the nation are fairly shared among all, not hoarded by a select and greedy few. A Nigeria where hunger, poverty and hardship are pushed into the shadows of an ever fading past.
There is no joy in seeing the people of this nation shoulder burdens that should have been shed years ago. I wish today’s difficulties did not exist. But we must endure if we are to reach the good side of our future.
My government is doing all that it can to ease the load. I will now outline the path we are taking to relieve the stress on our families and households.
We have embarked on several public sector reforms to stabilize the economy, direct fiscal and monetary policy to fight inflation, encourage production, ensure the security of lives and property and lend more support to the poor and the vulnerable.
Based on our talks with labour, business and other stakeholders, we are introducing a provisional wage increment to enhance the federal minimum wage without causing undue inflation. For the next six months, the average low-grade worker shall receive an additional Twenty-Five Thousand naira per month.
To ensure better grassroots development, we set up an Infrastructure Support Fund for states to invest in critical areas. States have already received funds to provide relief packages against the impact of rising food and other prices.
Making the economy more robust by lowering transport costs will be key. In this regard, we have opened a new chapter in public transportation through the deployment of cheaper, safer Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses across the nation. These buses will operate at a fraction of current fuel prices, positively affecting transport fares.
New CNG conversions kits will start coming in very soon as all hands are on deck to fast track the usually lengthy procurement process. We are also setting up training facilities and workshops across the nation to train and provide new opportunities for transport operators and entrepreneurs. This is a groundbreaking moment where, as a nation, we embrace more efficient means to power our economy. In making this change, we also make history.
I pledged a thorough housecleaning of the den of malfeasance the CBN had become. That housecleaning is well underway. A new leadership for the Central Bank has been constituted. Also, my special investigator will soon present his findings on past lapses and how to prevent similar reoccurrences. Henceforth, monetary policy shall be for the benefit of all and not the exclusive province of the powerful and wealthy.
Wise tax policy is essential to economic fairness and development. I have inaugurated a Committee on Tax Reforms to improve the efficiency of tax administration in the country and address fiscal policies that are unfair or hinder the business environment and slow our growth.
To boost employment and urban incomes, we are providing investment funding for enterprises with great potential. Similarly, we are increasing investment in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
Commencing this month, the social safety net is being extended through the expansion of cash transfer programs to an additional 15 million vulnerable households.
My administration shall always accord the highest priority to the safety of the people. Inter-Service collaboration and intelligence sharing have been enhanced. Our Service Chiefs have been tasked with the vital responsibility of rebuilding the capacities of our security services.
Here, I salute and commend our gallant security forces for keeping us safe and securing our territorial integrity. Many have paid the ultimate sacrifice. We remember them today and their families. We shall equip our forces with the ways and means needed to perform their urgent task on behalf of the people,
We shall continue to make key appointments in line with the provisions of the Constitution and with fairness toward all. Women, Youth and the physically challenged shall continue to be given due regard in these appointments.
May I take this opportunity to congratulate the National Assembly for its role in the quick take-off of this administration through the performance of its constitutional duties of confirmation and oversight.
I similarly congratulate the judiciary as a pillar of democracy and fairness.
I also thank members of our dynamic civil society organizations and labour unions for their dedication to Nigerian democracy. We may not always agree but I value your advice and recommendations. You are my brothers and sisters and you have my due respect.
Fellow compatriots, the journey ahead will not be navigated by fear or hatred. We can only achieve our better Nigeria through courage, compassion and commitment as one indivisible unit.
I promise that I shall remain committed and serve faithfully. I also invite all to join this enterprise to remake our beloved nation into its better self. We can do it. We must do it. We shall do it.!!!
I wish you all a happy 63rd Independence Anniversary.
