For millions of Nigerians, the past three years of economic reforms have brought significant hardship, but emerging indicators suggest the difficult adjustments are beginning to yield results. The Chairman, Nigeria Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji says stronger revenue, investment, production and financial stability are laying the foundation for broader prosperity. Dike Onwuamaeze brings the excerpts: For millions of Nigerians, the past three years have been a period of difficult economic adjustment. The removal of petrol subsidy, changes in the foreign exchange market, tighter monetary conditions and other structural reforms came with higher costs and significant pressure on households and businesses. Yet, beneath the immediate pain, a different story has been unfolding in the fundamentals of the Nigerian economy. According to the Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Dr. Zacch Adedeji, Nigeria has now moved beyond the most difficult phase of adjustment and is beginning to enter a period of consolidation, with several key macroeconomic indicators pointing in a more positive direction. Adedeji’s assessment in a recent interview, is significant because it provides an insight into how the economic reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu since May 2023 are changing the underlying structure of the economy. His argument is that the reforms should not be judged only by the immediate discomfort they created, but also by the distortions they have corrected, the capacity they are creating and the stronger economic platform they are building for the future. “Nigeria’s economy is showing strong signs of full recovery and accelerated growth following a series of necessary reforms by the current administration,” Adedeji said. He added: “The economy has moved decisively from acute macroeconomic distress to a more stable and increasingly resilient footing.” The reforms were never designed to correct structural weaknesses that had accumulated over many years and were increasingly becoming unsustainable. The NRS identified four major distortions inherited in May 2023. These are an unsustainable petrol subsidy regime, a fragmented and opaque foreign exchange market, an oil sector producing substantially below capacity and a tax base operating far below its potential. The Tinubu administration’s response was to tackle these problems simultaneously. The removal of petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market were the two foundational adjustments. Stronger Fiscal Foundation One of the clearest indicators of the changing economic landscape is government’s revenue. Tax collections increased from N12.3 trillion in 2023 to N21 trillion in 2024 and N28.3 trillion in 2025. In the first eight months of 2026 alone, total collections stood at N27.1 trillion. The tax-to-GDP ratio also increased from 10.3 per cent in 2023 to 13 per cent. These figures are important because Nigeria’s long-standing fiscal weakness has been one of the country’s biggest economic vulnerabilities. For years, government revenue has been inadequate relative to the size of the economy and the scale of the country’s infrastructure and development needs. Low revenue has meant limited fiscal space, greater dependence on borrowing and difficulty financing critical public investments. Adedeji said the tax reforms simplified administration and broadened the revenue base. He explained that digitalisation, expansion of the tax base and the implementation of the new tax framework were among the factors driving the increase. The national e-invoicing system for large taxpayers is one of the digital initiatives supporting compliance, while four new laws that came into effect on January 1, 2026—the Nigeria Tax Act, Nigeria Tax Administration Act, Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Act and Joint Tax Board Establishment Act—are expected to further modernise the tax system. The transformation of the former Federal Inland Revenue Service into the Nigeria Revenue Service also broadened the revenue consolidation framework by bringing together non-tax revenue streams previously collected by other government agencies. Most encouragingly, the NRS said non-oil sources now account for 76 per cent of total collections. From FX Market Distortion to Greater Transparency Another major reform was the unification of the foreign exchange market. Before the reform, the existence of multiple exchange rates created significant distortions. The gap between official and parallel-market rates encouraged arbitrage and made it difficult for businesses and investors to determine the true value of their investments. Adedeji illustrated the problem by recalling the disparity between the official and parallel ma
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