Ahead of a possible confirmation by the Senate, the Minister of State for Finance-designate, Prof.Taiwo Oyedele has met with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the administration moves to consolidate a sweeping overhaul of Nigeria’s fiscal and tax framework.
Oyedele, a public policy expert and former chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, was received by the president at the State House in Abuja in what officials described as an engagement focused on the government’s ongoing fiscal reform programme.
The meeting was his first formal audience with the president since his nomination for the ministerial position was transmitted to the Senate on March 3, 2026, for legislative confirmation.
Sources said their discussions centred around strategies to strengthen Nigeria’s revenue mobilisation architecture, improve tax administration, and widen the country’s tax base as the government seeks to stabilise public finances and support economic growth.
Oyedele’s nomination comes after his prominent role in designing Nigeria’s most recent tax reforms.
As chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, inaugurated in August 2023, he led a broad effort to restructure Nigeria’s tax regime, a process that produced four major pieces of legislation aimed at simplifying and modernising the country’s revenue system.
The laws include the Nigeria Tax Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act.
President Tinubu assented to the legislation on June 25, 2025, after months of debate among lawmakers, economists, and stakeholders in the private sector.
The new tax framework came into effect on January 1, 2026.
The reforms also created incentives intended to encourage job creation, including tax deductions for companies that employ additional workers or raise wages for lower-income staff.
In addition, agricultural enterprises were granted a five-year corporate tax holiday, while the Federal Inland Revenue Service was restructured and renamed the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) to reflect an expanded mandate in revenue collection.
If confirmed by the Senate, Oyedele will replace Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, who has been reassigned to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning as Minister of State, marking her third ministerial portfolio under the current administration.
The transition place takes place against the backdrop of broader changes within the finance ministry’s structure.
In December 2025, several agencies responsible for revenue collection were placed under the supervision of the Minister of State for Finance, a move widely interpreted as part of the government’s strategy to streamline fiscal administration.
Oyedele, who played a central role in designing the new tax architecture, is expected to oversee the implementation of many of the reforms.
Oyedele, 50, is an economist, accountant, and public policy specialist from Ikaram in Akoko, Ondo State.
He holds a Higher National Diploma in Accountancy and Finance from Yaba College of Technology and a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University.
He has also undertaken executive programmes at several international institutions, including the London School of Economics, Yale University, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Gordon Institute of Business Science.
Before joining government, Oyedele spent more than two decades in the private sector, working at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he rose to become Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader.
Alongside his professional career, he has maintained academic affiliations as a professor at Babcock University in Ogun State and a visiting scholar at Lagos Business School.
In recent public engagements, Oyedele has continued to outline the objectives of the tax reforms and their expected impact on the investment climate.
Early this month, he participated virtually in the third Existing Foreign Direct Investors Roundtable organised by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), where he discussed the government’s approach to strengthening tax certainty and improving the efficiency of revenue administration.
According to him, the reforms are designed to make Nigeria’s fiscal environment more predictable for investors while improving government revenue collection.
Despite the passage of the tax reform legislation, the implementation phase has not been without controversy.
Authors
Leave a comment