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Nigeria’s Office of the Tax Ombud on Saturday in Lagos said the country cannot build a sustainable tax system by focusing only on what citizens and businesses must pay, without also building trust in the system.
Addressing members of the Finance Correspondents of Nigeria (FICAN) during its annual conference, Dr. John Nwabueze, Nigeria’s first Tax Ombudsman, warned that the country’s tax reform agenda risks falling short of its goals unless revenue growth is matched by taxpayer confidence.
Speaking on the conference theme: “Building Taxpayers’ Confidence and Trust in Nigeria’s Tax Reform Agenda,” through his Chief of Staff, Dr. Peter Iwegbu, Nwabueze, lamented the situation where Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio of just 8.2% in 2023 is less than half the roughly 16% average across some 38 comparable African economies, as evidence of how far the country’s tax and compliance system had lagged before the current reform agenda began.
However, he stressed that closing that gap requires taxpayers who understand, trust, and are willing to engage with the system, not compliance driven by enforcement alone, warning that “revenue growth and taxpayers’ confidence should not be viewed as an opposing objective.”
“Properly administered, they can reinforce one another,” he stressed arguing that legislation alone cannot deliver the reforms’ objectives, pointing out that the real test of Nigeria’s tax overhaul rests on a set of practical questions: can a small business owner understand their obligations, can a company determine which taxes legitimately apply to it, and does a taxpayer believe the system will treat them fairly when a dispute arises.
He described the relationship between taxpayers and tax authorities as “a contract of responsibility on both sides”: citizens and businesses have a legitimate obligation to pay lawful taxes, but the state equally owes them an administration that is fair, transparent, accountable and consistent with the law.
The Office of the Tax Ombud, he said, was established specifically to fill that trust gap — not to encourage tax resistance, and not to serve as an appendage of tax administration, but to give taxpayers a credible, independent avenue to raise legitimate grievances and have them resolved.
On digitalisation, he cautioned that trust cannot be assumed simply because processes move online: “technology does not automatically create trust… it may create easiness, it may create confidence, but it has not solved the problem of that trust,” he said, warning against merely transferring complicated paper-based procedures onto digital platforms without making them genuinely simpler and more responsive.
Nwabueze illustrated the trust deficit with an anecdote from a market trader in Ilorin, who asked him directly how tax reform helps her when she faces multiple informal levies from different officials in a single day — a market permit fee, an estate levy, separate charges from separate collectors — despite already having paid once.
He said such episodes underscore why abstract metrics like the tax-to-GDP ratio mean little to ordinary Nigerians unless reforms are translated into tangible, trustworthy experiences at the point of payment.
Nwabueze pointed to concrete steps the Office has taken to operationalise the trust-building mandate rather than leaving it as rhetoric, pointing to accessible complaint resolution as the practical test of whether the reform agenda’s promises translate into taxpayer experience.
With roughly 67 million BVN holders already captured in the formal tax net, he said collaboration among banks, fintechs and regulators remains essential to ensuring that expanded digital identity translates into fairer — not merely more efficient — tax administration.
He said the Office would continue supporting public awareness and taxpayer education, stressing that “a taxpayer who understands their rights is better positioned to fulfil their responsibilities,” while “a tax authority that is accountable strengthens the legitimacy of its administration.”
He explicitly tasked financial journalists with a role in closing the trust gap, urging FICAN members to explain the practical difference between lawful tax planning and tax evasion, investigate how administrative complaints are actually handled on the ground, and report not just on how much revenue is collected but on how that revenue translates into public services that taxpayers can see.
Nwabueze closed his address by urging journalists to help measure the reform agenda’s success not only by revenue collected, but by whether taxpayers understand their obligations, whether legitimate complaints are resolved fairly, and whether public confidence in tax institutions genuinely improves — the same standard, he suggested, by which Nigeria’s broader capital market reforms, from bank recapitalisation to the Dangote Refinery IPO, should ultimately be judged.
Earlier in a welcome address, the FICAN Chairman Mr. Chima Nwokoji framed the trust question against the backdrop of Nigeria’s recent banking-sector recapitalisation, noting that Nigerian banks raised a combined N4.65 trillion over a 24-month exercise, with about 73% of that capital coming from domestic investors.
Nwokoji contrasted that figure with the Dangote Refinery IPO, which is expected to raise approximately N2.15 trillion if fully subscribed — almost half of what 33 banks collectively mobilised over nearly two years, for the expansion of a single company — and pressed the panel on whether the banking sector’s newly raised capital is translating into lending, job creation and foreign exchange generation, or remaining largely on paper.
He linked this directly to the tax reform discussion, noting that a successful rollout of Nigeria’s new tax regime depends heavily on the same digital infrastructure — the interbank settlement system, BVN enrolment — that underpins both bank recapitalisation verification and electronic tax administration.
Recall that Dr. Nwabueze was appointed Nigeria’s first Tax Ombudsman by President Bola Tinubu in November 2025, in line with the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, 2025, with a mandate to serve as an independent watchdog against abuse of power and arbitrary decision-making by tax officials.
The Office reported receiving over 20 genuine complaints within its first three months of operation, most involving disputes over state-level revenue services rather than federal taxes — an early signal, consistent with Nwabueze’s Ilorin anecdote, that much of the trust deficit sits at the subnational level where taxpayers interact most directly with multiple collecting agencies.
Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele formally unveiled the Office’s digital case management portal, website and toll-free call centre earlier in 2026, framing the platforms as central to ensuring taxpayers have confidence that disputes will be heard fairly and resolved through accessible channels.
The Joint Revenue Board disclosed in July 2026 that 16 of Nigeria’s 36 states had adopted a harmonised Taxes and Levies framework aimed at eliminating multiple taxation — directly addressing the kind of overlapping local levies the Ilorin trader described — as part of a broader effort to build a more predictable, trust-based tax environment. Tax Ombud Calls for Taxpayer Trust to Match Revenue Drive*
… Says Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio was just 8.2% before reforms
Nigeria cannot build a sustainable tax system by focusing only on what citizens and businesses must pay, without also building trust in the system through which they pay, the Office of the Tax Ombud has said, warning that the country’s tax reform agenda risks falling short of its goals unless revenue growth is matched by taxpayer confidence.
The call was made in a speech by Dr. John Nwabueze, Nigeria’s first Tax Ombudsman, delivered on his behalf by his Chief of Staff, Dr. Peter Iwegbu, at the 36th anniversary conference of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) in Lagos, themed “Building Taxpayers’ Confidence and Trust in Nigeria’s Tax Reform Agenda.”
“Revenue growth and taxpayers’ confidence should not be viewed as an opposing objective,” Nwabueze said. “Properly administered, they can reinforce one another.”
Nwabueze argued that legislation alone cannot deliver the reforms’ objectives, pointing out that the real test of Nigeria’s tax overhaul rests on a set of practical questions: can a small business owner understand their obligations, can a company determine which taxes legitimately apply to it, and does a taxpayer believe the system will treat them fairly when a dispute arises.
He cited Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio of just 8.2% in 2023, less than half the roughly 16% average across some 38 comparable African economies, as evidence of how far the country’s tax and compliance system had lagged before the current reform agenda began.
However, he stressed that closing that gap requires taxpayers who understand, trust, and are willing to engage with the system, not compliance driven by enforcement alone.
He described the relationship between taxpayers and tax authorities as “a contract of responsibility on both sides”: citizens and businesses have a legitimate obligation to pay lawful taxes, but the state equally owes them an administration that is fair, transparent, accountable and consistent with the law.
The Office of the Tax Ombud, he said, was established specifically to fill that trust gap — not to encourage tax resistance, and not to serve as an appendage of tax administration, but to give taxpayers a credible, independent avenue to raise legitimate grievances and have them resolved.
On digitalisation, he cautioned that trust cannot be assumed simply because processes move online: “technology does not automatically create trust… it may create easiness, it may create confidence, but it has not solved the problem of that trust,” he said, warning against merely transferring complicated paper-based procedures onto digital platforms without making them genuinely simpler and more responsive.
Nwabueze illustrated the trust deficit with an anecdote from a market trader in Ilorin, who asked him directly how tax reform helps her when she faces multiple informal levies from different officials in a single day — a market permit fee, an estate levy, separate charges from separate collectors — despite already having paid once.
He said such episodes underscore why abstract metrics like the tax-to-GDP ratio mean little to ordinary Nigerians unless reforms are translated into tangible, trustworthy experiences at the point of payment.
Nwabueze pointed to concrete steps the Office has taken to operationalise the trust-building mandate rather than leaving it as rhetoric, pointing to accessible complaint resolution as the practical test of whether the reform agenda’s promises translate into taxpayer experience.
With roughly 67 million BVN holders already captured in the formal tax net, he said collaboration among banks, fintechs and regulators remains essential to ensuring that expanded digital identity translates into fairer — not merely more efficient — tax administration.
He said the Office would continue supporting public awareness and taxpayer education, stressing that “a taxpayer who understands their rights is better positioned to fulfil their responsibilities,” while “a tax authority that is accountable strengthens the legitimacy of its administration.”
He explicitly tasked financial journalists with a role in closing the trust gap, urging FICAN members to explain the practical difference between lawful tax planning and tax evasion, investigate how administrative complaints are actually handled on the ground, and report not just on how much revenue is collected but on how that revenue translates into public services that taxpayers can see.
Nwabueze closed his address by urging journalists to help measure the reform agenda’s success not only by revenue collected, but by whether taxpayers understand their obligations, whether legitimate complaints are resolved fairly, and whether public confidence in tax institutions genuinely improves — the same standard, he suggested, by which Nigeria’s broader capital market reforms, from bank recapitalisation to the Dangote Refinery IPO, should ultimately be judged.
Welcoming participants to the conference, the FICAN Chairman Mr. Chima Nwokoji framed the trust question against the backdrop of Nigeria’s recent banking-sector recapitalisation, noting that Nigerian banks raised a combined N4.65 trillion over a 24-month exercise, with about 73% of that capital coming from domestic investors.
Nwokoji contrasted that figure with the Dangote Refinery IPO, which is expected to raise approximately N2.15 trillion if fully subscribed — almost half of what 33 banks collectively mobilised over nearly two years, for the expansion of a single company — and pressed the panel on whether the banking sector’s newly raised capital is translating into lending, job creation and foreign exchange generation, or remaining largely on paper.
He linked this directly to the tax reform discussion, noting that a successful rollout of Nigeria’s new tax regime depends heavily on the same digital infrastructure — the interbank settlement system, BVN enrolment — that underpins both bank recapitalisation verification and electronic tax administration.
Recall that Dr. Nwabueze was appointed Nigeria’s first Tax Ombudsman by President Bola Tinubu in November 2025, in line with the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, 2025, with a mandate to serve as an independent watchdog against abuse of power and arbitrary decision-making by tax officials.
The Office reported receiving over 20 genuine complaints within its first three months of operation, most involving disputes over state-level revenue services rather than federal taxes — an early signal, consistent with Nwabueze’s Ilorin anecdote, that much of the trust deficit sits at the subnational level where taxpayers interact most directly with multiple collecting agencies.
Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele formally unveiled the Office’s digital case management portal, website and toll-free call centre earlier in 2026, framing the platforms as central to ensuring taxpayers have confidence that disputes will be heard fairly and resolved through accessible channels.
The Joint Revenue Board disclosed in July 2026 that 16 of Nigeria’s 36 states had adopted a harmonised Taxes and Levies framework aimed at eliminating multiple taxation — directly addressing the kind of overlapping local levies the Ilorin trader described — as part of a broader effort to build a more predictable, trust-based tax environment.
