Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, has said the Federal Government will not mortgage Nigeria’s future to protect individuals and businesses that have benefited from the economy for years without paying taxes.
Oyedele made the remarks at the January Business Breakfast of the Franco-Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry held in Lagos, where he addressed growing resistance to ongoing tax reforms and Nigeria’s weak revenue performance.
Drawing a comparison with South Africa, Oyedele noted that the country generated over ₦60 trillion from personal income tax alone in 2024—an amount that exceeds Nigeria’s total tax revenue from all sources combined, including petroleum profit tax, corporate income tax, value-added tax, and collections by federal, state, and local governments.
“That is one tax from about 60 million people, compared to Nigeria’s 240 million people,” he said.
While acknowledging that South Africa’s per capita income is higher, Oyedele stressed that Nigeria still has significant untapped potential in personal income tax collection.
“If you take the top 60 million people in Nigeria based on income, it will be comparable to the per capita income of South Africa,” he explained. “Even if we cannot collect ₦60 trillion, why not ₦30 trillion? Guess how much we collected? It was under ₦3 trillion. Something is wrong—the math is not adding up.”
According to him, the wide disparity helps explain the opposition to tax reforms.
“This is one of the reasons we remain motivated to keep going. The people fighting the reforms are not telling you why they are doing so. It is because they made money for so long and never paid taxes,” Oyedele said.
He added that the reforms are aimed at building a fair and transparent system where no one is above the law.
“You will fight it because paying tax is hard anywhere in the world—we understand that. But we will not compromise the future of the country. What is at stake is far bigger than any of us,” he said.
Recall that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed four tax reform bills into law on June 26, 2025. The new tax laws are scheduled to take effect on January 1, despite calls from some quarters for delays or suspension.
