Nigeria’s ongoing tax reform programme seems to have hit an early credibility check, with the Minister of State for Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, admitting that errors exist within the newly enacted tax legal guidelines and disclosing {that a} corrective finance regulation is underway to deal with the gaps.
Talking on the 2026 Annual Convention of the Nigerian Bar Affiliation Part on Authorized Apply, Oyedele, who additionally chairs the Presidential Fiscal Coverage and Tax Reforms Committee, acknowledged that discrepancies emerged throughout the legislative and documentation processes, mentioning that the errors resulted from guide processes and a number of levels of assessment.
He mentioned steps are underway to right recognized points by means of a proposed finance invoice and to realign the legal guidelines with their unique intent.
The admission, coming months after the rollout of the sweeping reforms, alerts a authorities effort to include potential distortions that might undermine investor confidence rapidly.
Based on him, the reform agenda is anchored on transparency, equity, and readability of function, relatively than arbitrary enforcement.
He careworn that past the technical wording of statutes, the underlying coverage intent should information interpretation and implementation, warning that inconsistency in fiscal coverage might ship adverse alerts to each native and overseas traders.
Based on a Nairametrics report, Oyedele pointed to distortions within the earlier tax regime, noting that people might face an efficient tax price of about 19 per cent, whereas incorporating the identical enterprise pushed the burden past 40 per cent, a construction he described as misaligned with world greatest apply.
He additionally cautioned towards frequent coverage reversals, arguing that stability stays a essential think about sustaining funding flows.
With practically half of Nigeria’s workforce incomes beneath N70,000 month-to-month, he maintained that aggressive taxation of low-income earners can be inequitable and counterproductive.
The necessity for a corrective invoice stems from earlier issues raised within the Nationwide Meeting.
In December 2025, a lawmaker, Abdulsammad Dasuki, flagged discrepancies between the gazetted variations of the tax legal guidelines and people handed by the legislature, pointing to materials variations from what was debated and permitted.
The contested provisions type a part of a broader reform bundle signed into regulation by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, with implementation commencing in January 2026.
Regardless of the rising points, the federal government insists that the reforms mark a big shift in direction of a extra balanced, growth-oriented tax system.
Key provisions embrace eradicating minimal tax necessities for loss-making companies, a transfer geared toward stopping the taxation of capital relatively than revenue.
Important items and providers equivalent to meals, schooling, and healthcare have additionally been exempted from Worth Added Tax. On the identical time, a number of tax legal guidelines have been consolidated into 4 principal legal guidelines, together with the Nigeria Tax Act and the Nigeria Tax Administration Act.
The framework additional seeks to defend low-income earners and small companies, recognising their restricted capability to soak up further tax burdens.
Analysts say this method might broaden compliance over time by easing stress on essentially the most susceptible segments of the financial system.
The proposed invoice is subsequently anticipated not solely to right technical inconsistencies but in addition to strengthen the credibility of the reform course of.
For policymakers, the problem now’s to make sure execution matches intent as Nigeria builds a extra environment friendly tax system to spice up income with out stifling progress.
Festus Akanbi
Times Nigeria