Kelechi Ibe, a tax expert and Co-founder of the tax compliance platform TaxStreem, has over a decade of experience in tax law practice and advisory services. His career spans leading institutions, including tier-one law firm Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, KPMG, and global law firm Latham & Watkins.

In this interview with The Guardian Nigeria’s Oluyemi Ogunseyin, Kelechi Ibe speaks about his journey into taxation, Nigeria’s evolving tax reforms, and his outlook on improving tax compliance among Nigerian businesses.

Please share a bit about your professional journey and how you came into the field of taxation.

I read law at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, where I graduated at 21 as the 3rd Best Graduating Student in the Faculty of Law. I went on to secure a 2nd Class Upper degree from the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, in 2016. Throughout 2017, after law school, I served in one of the best law firms in Awka, Anambra state, and that was my first exposure to litigation.

I did not study taxation at the university.  I got into taxation by chance. When I returned to Lagos after my NYSC in Awka, most of the top law firms in Lagos had retained their NYSC hires, so getting in was really tough. I learned about KPMG and that it is a multinational. It did not matter to me what they did; I just wanted to work at a big firm, so I applied, and by God’s grace, I got employed in July 2018 and resumed in September 2018. The most suitable department for me as a lawyer was tax, so I chose to do tax.

I learnt so much about tax at KPMG, but wanted more exposure to core legal practice, so I joined Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie (UUBO) in May 2021. I grew quickly to become a Senior Associate in 2023, and in 2024, I was the only Nigerian and 1 of just 5 Africans selected through a very competitive process by the International Lawyers for Africa (ILFA) to go on a secondment in London. I worked with Latham & Watkins, Essex Court Chambers and One Essex Court, all in London, for 3 months, and it was during this period that I was exposed to the integral use of AI in legal practice, which sparked an interest in me to build AI products for the African professional services market. This was foundational to what TaxStreem is today.

In the course of my career, I have won several awards and recognitions, including being named a 2x Rising Star for Corporate Tax and Transfer Pricing by World Tax (International Tax Review). I was also awarded the “Lawyer of the Year” at the CEOs Network Africa Under 30s award in 2022. I received a nomination for the Future Africa Award Prize for Lawyers in 2022, an award described by the World Bank as the Nobel Prize for Young Africans and by Forbes International as Nigeria’s Most Important Youth Award.

You’ve worked with leading institutions, including Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie and KPMG. How did those experiences shape your understanding of tax systems and compliance?

KPMG and UUBO are easily the best firms in their categories to work at as a professional, and I was privileged to do meaningful work at both places.

I was first introduced to handling monthly VAT and WHT compliance for local and foreign clients at KPMG. This was before TaxProMax was introduced for online filing. I worked on my first tax structuring assignment, followed by a series of other complex tax structuring mandates. I also handled some tax due diligence assignments, tax dispute resolution, global mobility service mandates, and general tax advisory.

KPMG gave me access to wide and in-depth training not just in tax but in accounting, which formed the foundation of my career in tax. KPMG has a structured way of training staff. You just had to learn.

At UUBO, I did a lot of transaction advisory. Because our corporate and finance teams advised on a lot of market-defining transactions, I was mostly involved in the tax aspects – from tax due diligence, to transaction advisory, to reviewing transaction documentation, tax structuring, etc.

For instance, I played a key role in the tax aspects of Universal Music’s acquisition of Mavin Music. I also did some tax work for GSK when they were demerging from Haelon.

Across these firms, I learned that no two assignments are the same, and each requires a high level of diligence. I learnt to think outside the box, be excellent, solution-oriented, and manage clients. I learnt to think commercially and to know when to wear my risk management hat.

Nigeria has recently introduced a number of tax reforms. What is your general assessment of the direction these reforms are taking?

First, the reforms are steps in the right direction. Nigeria needs to widen the tax net instead of overtaxing a small base of compliant taxpayers.

Foreign companies should pay a fairer share of tax to reflect their commercial activities in Nigeria, and technology must be deployed to enable more effective tax administration. Low-income earners should be exempt from tax or pay less, while struggling businesses need room to grow before being overburdened.

At the same time, tax incentives should be tied to productivity, and businesses should be encouraged to create jobs. The government must remain accountable for how tax revenue is utilised, while tax administration should be better harmonised across jurisdictions. Taxpayers should also be protected from overzealous enforcement, states should retain a fairer share of revenue, and refund processes must be seamless.

These are areas where the Tax Reform Acts have shown great promise, but success would depend largely on implementation.

In your view, what are the biggest barriers preventing Nigerian businesses from achieving tax compliance today?

The barriers to tax compliance are numerous. They include the high cost of compliance, limited access to clear and simplified information on tax obligations, and a lack of trust in government, largely driven by poor accountability in the use of public funds. The complexity of compliance further compounds the problem.

In most developed countries, business owners handle their taxes themselves using technology tools. Nigeria does not have that. Tax compliance is complicated, from bookkeeping to tax computation to the actual filing on several government e-filing portals that are difficult to understand and navigate, even for tax consultants.

What misconceptions do many business owners have about taxes?

There are several misconceptions, but one of the most common is that small businesses and tax-exempt organisations assume that because they have no income tax liability, they have no obligation to file tax returns.

In reality, every business, including small businesses, NGOs, and tax-exempt entities, is required to file annual income tax returns, even if no tax is payable. The tax authorities require this data, and the law makes filing mandatory..

Apart from annual income tax compliance, there is monthly Value Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding Tax (WHT) compliance.  This applies to a wide range of businesses, including small and tax-exempt entities.

Failure to comply exposes them to penalties and interest, and can also prevent them from obtaining a Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC), which is often required for key business transactions.

Another misconception is that, most businesses assume VAT and WHT are part of their revenue, so they keep them. As a business, you are simply a collection agent for the government; therefore, you must remit VAT and WHT monthly to the government or risk penalties.

In simple terms, what problem is TaxStreem trying to solve?

Nigerian businesses, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), struggle with proper record-keeping. This exposes them to tax liabilities, keeps many of them informal, and ultimately impacts their growth because they cannot access equity and debt capital.

The complexity of tax compliance in Nigeria only adds to the challenge. Failure to comply exposes businesses to penalties and liabilities. Take the VAT regime, for example: some supplies attract the standard rate (7.5%), others are VAT-exempt, while some are zero-rated (0%). For many business owners, understanding these distinctions without a tax professional is difficult. The same applies to Withholding Tax (WHT).

Even for SMEs that attempt to stay compliant, the cost can be prohibitive-  especially for low-margin businesses. Accountants supporting these businesses must charge reasonable fees due to the time and effort required to work with unstructured data across multiple clients.

We built TaxStreem to solve these problems. TaxStreem allows businesses to connect their business accounts to their TaxStreem account, and our AI engine uses the transaction information received in real-time from linked bank accounts and other tools to automate their bookkeeping, prepare tax calculations and returns. It also files directly with the relevant tax authorities and securely stores records for easy access when needed.

Beyond compliance, our AI agents also give business owners insight into their business for better decision-making.

All of this is delivered accurately and at an accessible cost of ₦25,000 per month. TaxStreem is also designed for accountants, enabling them to manage tax compliance and bookkeeping seamlessly across multiple businesses.

Building a technology product around taxation is not the easiest startup path. What has the journey been like so far?

It has been both exciting and challenging. Exciting because I genuinely love tax and I’m building something that aligns closely with that passion, and even more so because I know we are solving a fundamental problem for the businesses that power the Nigerian economy.

I believe that, beyond broader macroeconomic factors, a tool like TaxStreem has the potential to significantly accelerate Nigeria’s economic growth. As more businesses use TaxStreem to formalise and modernise their operations, they become more investable, unlocking both local and foreign capital.

At the same time, business owners are better equipped to make informed decisions through the insights TaxStreem provides, leading to more resilient and sustainable businesses. And by making compliance easier, TaxStreem can increase both government revenue and the availability of reliable data, which, ideally, supports better economic planning and outcomes.

In addition, in this era of improved intra-African trade and commerce, I am hopeful that TaxStreem would power the expansion of many Nigerian businesses into other African countries by giving them the tools to comply seamlessly in every African jurisdiction in which they do business.

Finally, what advice would you give to Nigerian entrepreneurs when it comes to managing their tax obligations?

My advice is simple. Use TaxStreem. We are your partner for everything tax compliance and bookkeeping, so you don’t have to navigate it alone.

Tax authorities are more equipped than ever to enforce compliance, and it’s important not to be exposed. Let us handle your tax obligations, so you can focus on what matters most- growing your business.