• Declares mounting of roadblocks for tax collection now illegal
•Tinubu nominates Oyedele as Finance Minister of State, redeploys Anite-Uzoka to budget ministry
Deji Elumoye and Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, yesterday assured that the new tax laws will be monitored to ensure transparency, fairness and equity.
Edun gave the assurance on the same day President Bola Tinubu nominated Mr. Taiwo Oyedele as the Minister of State for Finance, replacing Dr. Doris Anite-Uzoka.
Edun, spoke in Abuja, yesterday, at the signing ceremony of the Presumptive Tax framework with the National Tax Policy Implementation Committee (NTPIC).
Tax authorities are turning to a presumptive tax approach, a system that estimates what informal businesses earn based on what can be seen, such as their trade, location, and scale of operations, rather than audited accounts.
Presumptive tax regulations allow authorities to estimate tax liability for small businesses and the informal sector when formal records are unavailable.
Edun explained that the signing of the presumptive tax regulations signaled the transition to structured implementation of the new tax laws, adding that it was the formalisation of the framework for small businesses to thrive rather than undermine their growth
Edun further stressed that the Presumptive Tax would be fair, transparent, and would exempt nano and small businesses in a bid to support their development and expansion.
He clarified that the government was not in any way trying to increase taxes but to expand the tax net.
“Our role is to ensure coordination of taxes, not fragmentation, adding that the signing ceremony with the NTPIC was a reinforcement of the government’s resolve for stability.
According to him, “with the signing of these regulations, we are transiting from legislation to structured implementation of the tax reforms; the Tax Acts that were passed into law in 2025 and became effective some in the 2025 and some in January 2026.”
He said the key message was transparency, fairness, clarity, equity and economic inclusion for all Nigerians.
“ Looking at the purpose of the regulation, it’s expedient to note that these regulations will provide a simple and transparent means for the application of the presumptive tax,” he said.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of the Joint Revenue Board (JRB), Mr. Olusegun Adesokan said the 36 states were in alignment with the tax regulations.
According to him, “We are moving from intention to implementation.”
He stated that history was being made as it marked the first time the presumptive tax approach is coming into operation, adding that it is a demonstration of taxing prosperity and not poverty.
Adesokan, who noted that apart from the application of technology in tax collection, the new system makes the mounting of road blocks for the collection of any form of tax illegal.
He stated that the subnationals were pleased with the regulations
Meanwhile, Tinubu yesterday nominated Oyedele as the Minister of State for Finance, replacing Anite-Uzoka.
According to a statement on the cabinet shake-up issued by the presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, Anite-Uzoka would now move to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, as the Minister of State, her third portfolio in the administration.
The President has conveyed the nomination of Oyedele to the Senate for confirmation in a letter to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
Until Tinubu nominated him as a minister, Oyedele from Ikaram, Akoko, Ondo State, was the chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, which overhauled Nigeria’s tax system.
Oyedele, 50, an economist, accountant and public policy expert, attended Yaba College of Technology, where he obtained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in accountancy and finance.
He attended Oxford Brookes University and earned a BSc in applied accounting.
He also completed executive education programmes at the London School of Economics, Yale University, the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and the Harvard Kennedy School.
Oyedele spent 22 years of his working career at PwC, joining in 2001 and rising to become the Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader.
Oyedele is also a professor at Babcock University in Ogun State and a visiting scholar at the Lagos Business School.
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