President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has nominated tax policy expert Taiwo Oyedele as Minister of State for Finance, forwarding his name to the Senate for confirmation.
The nomination was conveyed in a letter addressed to Senate President Godswill Akpabio and announced in a State House statement dated March 3, 2026, signed by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
If confirmed, Oyedele will take over from Doris Anite-Uzoka, who has been reassigned as Minister of State at the Ministry of Budget and National Planning. The redeployment marks her third ministerial role under the current administration.
Oyedele previously chaired the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, where he led the design and implementation of sweeping changes to Nigeria’s tax framework. The committee drafted a set of reform bills signed into law by President Tinubu on June 26, 2025 — legislation described by the presidency as the most far-reaching overhaul of the country’s tax system in decades. The reforms are expected to pave the way for a unified Nigeria Revenue Service.
Despite the administration’s endorsement, the new tax regime quickly generated controversy. In December 2025, Oyedele maintained that the laws would come into effect on January 1, 2026, even amid criticism and claims that the versions assented to by the President differed from those approved by the National Assembly.
Following a closed-door meeting with the President in Lagos, Oyedele told journalists that implementation would proceed as scheduled. He argued that the reforms would ease the tax burden on citizens, stating that 98 percent of workers would pay little or no Pay-As-You-Earn tax, while 97 percent of small businesses would be exempt from Corporate Income Tax, Value Added Tax, and Withholding Tax.
Also present at the meeting were Zacchaeus Adedeji, Chairman of the Nigerian Revenue Service, and Joseph Tegbe, Chairman of the National Tax Policy Implementation Committee.
However, concerns emerged within the National Assembly. A member of the House of Representatives, Abdussamad Dasuki, questioned discrepancies between the gazetted copies of the laws and the versions debated by lawmakers, raising allegations of possible executive alterations.
Oyedele, an indigene of Ikaram in Akoko, Ondo State, is an economist and public policy specialist. He holds a Higher National Diploma in Accountancy and Finance from Yaba College of Technology and a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University.
He has also completed executive education programmes at the London School of Economics, Yale University, Gordon Institute of Business Science, and the Harvard Kennedy School.
Before entering public service, Oyedele spent 22 years at PwC, where he rose to become Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader. He currently serves as a professor at Babcock University and as a visiting scholar at Lagos Business School.
His nomination now awaits Senate screening and confirmation, a process that may revive debate over the tax reforms he championed and the lingering questions surrounding their implementation.
