Taiwo Oyedele: Those Against Tax Reforms Made Money for So Long without Paying Taxes

Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the presidential fiscal policy and tax reforms committee, says the federal government will not compromise Nigeria’s future to protect those that have profited for years without paying taxes.

Oyedele spoke at the January business breakfast of the Franco-Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) held recently in Lagos, where he addressed resistance to ongoing tax reforms and the country’s weak revenue performance.

Drawing a comparison with South Africa, he said the country generated over N60 trillion (naira equivalent) from personal income tax alone in 2024.

The chairman said the amount exceeds Nigeria’s total tax revenue from all sources combined, including petroleum profit tax, corporate income tax, value-added tax (VAT), and taxes collected by federal, state and local governments.

“That is one tax from about 60 million people, compared to Nigeria’s 240 million people,” Oyedele said.

While acknowledging that South Africa’s per capita income is higher than Nigeria’s, he argued that Nigeria still has the capacity to significantly boost 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,” the committee chairman said.

“Let’s say we can’t collect 60 trillion, why not 30? Guess how much we collected? It was under N3 trillion. Something is wrong, the math is not adding up.”

Oyedele said the sharp disparity explains why tax reforms continue to face a lot of pushback from certain quarters.

“This is one of the reasons why we find the motivation to keep going because the people fighting the reforms are not telling you why they’re fighting them. It is because they made money for so long, they never paid taxes,” he said.