The Chairman of Nigeria’s Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, has cautioned that postponing the implementation of Nigeria’s newly signed tax reform laws beyond Thursday, January 1, 2026, could worsen economic pressure on workers and businesses across Africa’s most populous country.
Oyedele, who leads the committee mandated by the Federal Government of Nigeria to design and guide sweeping fiscal and tax reforms, issued the warning amid growing controversy surrounding alleged discrepancies between the tax bills passed by Nigeria’s bicameral legislature and the versions that were later gazetted as law.
Okay News reports that the controversy was first raised publicly last week by Abdulsamad Dasuki, a member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the National Assembly, who alleged that the versions of the tax laws published in the official government gazette differed from what lawmakers debated and approved on the floor of parliament.
Following Dasuki’s claims, several civil society organisations and prominent political figures called for the suspension of the new tax laws. Among them were Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President of Nigeria, and Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in Nigeria’s 2023 general election.
However, speaking on “The Morning Brief,” a political and economic programme aired on Channels Television, a privately owned Nigerian news broadcaster based in Lagos, Oyedele argued that suspending the reforms would inflict greater harm on ordinary Nigerians.
“The implication of not implementing the new tax laws by January 1, 2026, is that the bottom 98 per cent of workers remain overtaxed,” he said.
Oyedele explained that under the existing tax framework, Nigerian workers and small business owners continue to face multiple layers of taxation imposed by different tiers of government, including federal, state, and local authorities.
According to him, delaying the reforms would also deny businesses access to key exemptions embedded in the new laws, while maintaining what he described as structural inefficiencies that raise operating costs.
“Businesses will miss out on exemptions and will continue to pay multiple taxes, creating large burdens.
“Minimum taxes continue to apply on low and small unprofitable businesses, while hidden VAT keeps the prices of basic consumables like food, healthcare, and education high,” he said.
Rather than suspending the laws entirely, Oyedele urged stakeholders to isolate and address any problematic provisions while allowing the core reforms to proceed as approved by lawmakers.
“Even if it is established that there have been substantial alterations to what the National Assembly passed, my view is to identify those provisions—they are not part of the law—then implement the law as passed by the NASS while addressing the issues as to how they got there in the first place,” he said.
He acknowledged that even the version approved by Nigeria’s National Assembly would still require technical corrections.
“Even my committee and I have noted areas where we need to go back through Mr President to request amendments to those laws because of issues with referencing and definition,” Oyedele explained.
Addressing the allegation raised by Representative Dasuki, Oyedele said lawmakers were the only authority capable of determining whether discrepancies truly existed.
“Before you can say there is a difference between what was gazetted and what was passed, we have what has not been gazetted. We do not have what was passed.
“The official harmonised bills certified by the clerk, which the National Assembly sent to the President, we do not have a copy to compare. Only the lawmakers can say authoritatively what we sent,” he stated.
Oyedele also addressed concerns surrounding Section 41 subsection eight of one of the bills, which had been reported to require a 20 per cent deposit.
“I know that particular provision is not in the final gazette, but it was in the draft gazette. Some people decided to circulate the report before the committee had met,” he said, adding that the media reports “did not come from the committee set up by the House of Representatives.”
The tax reform package consists of four major laws signed by Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who assumed office in May 2023. The government has described the legislation as the most significant restructuring of Nigeria’s tax system in decades.
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. All four statutes place tax administration under the Nigeria Revenue Service, a newly strengthened central authority.
Although the reforms faced resistance from some lawmakers from northern Nigeria during the legislative process, the Federal Government maintains that the measures are designed to simplify tax compliance, broaden the national tax base, and modernise revenue collection in line with global best practices.
