FG says 100m individuals register for tax purposes
The Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee has dismissed media reports that Minister of State for Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, admitted to errors in Nigeria’s new tax laws, saying such reports are misleading.
 
This was as the Federal Government reported early gains from its new tax reforms, with a sharp rise in business registrations and a significant increase in the number of Nigerians captured in the tax system.
 
In a statement posted on Oyedele’s X account on Saturday, the committee cited publications that claimed the tax man acknowledged flaws in the tax framework, saying they were misrepresentations of his remarks.
 
It also denied that Oyedele urged Nigerians to await the outcome of a legislative probe, noting that the process was completed and the gazetted copies certified by the National Assembly had been published since January 2026.
 
The controversy followed Oyedele’s appearance at the 2026 Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Legal Practice, where he spoke on the rationale behind the tax reforms.
 
Reports thereafter suggested he had admitted errors in the laws and indicated that a finance bill would be used to correct them.
 
The committee acknowledged that some discrepancies arose from the law-making process, including manual procedures and multiple review stages, but said this was distinct from errors in the laws themselves. It described any contrary interpretation as unhelpful and potentially damaging to public understanding of the reforms.
 
On progress recorded, the committee said the number of persons in the tax net had grown from under 10 million to over 100 million, with thousands of informal businesses now seeking registration daily. It attributed the gains to exemptions for small companies, higher income thresholds for low earners, and the zero-rating of essential goods, including food, healthcare, education, transport, and rent.
 
The reforms, signed into law by President Bola Tinubu in June 2025, also established a Tax Ombud to protect taxpayer rights. A presumptive tax regime targeting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) was introduced in March 2026 to broaden the tax base.
 
The committee said legislative updates through finance bills were a standard part of any reform process and should not be read as proof of fundamental defects in the laws.