Zacch Adedeji at NRS: A Legacy of Innovation, by Jack Okude

When a nation’s economy is so bad that it has to print money to meet governance costs, what can the fiscal manager do to help revive that economy? This was the challenge before Zacch Adedeji, President of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), formerly the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

This was also the economy inherited by President Bola Tinubu. A belly-up, anemic economy, burdened by debt, low productivity, galloping inflation and declining investor confidence.

In such circumstances, the tax office should make sure to plug the losses to collect more taxes and increase revenue. It achieves this through transformational leadership and a technology-driven fiscal management framework that is robust enough to connect the dots between technology and people.

The tax office also engages in advocacy and public information to convince the public that when they pay taxes, they also pay themselves because the tax they pay is used to provide them with healthcare, good roads and general infrastructure, among other services. Another duty of the chief tax officer is to push himself to convince the public to trust the tax process by ensuring transparency in tax administration. Since September 2023, when President Tinubu appointed him, Adedeji, who boasts a first-class degree in management and accounting, has clinically aggregated these key tasks into a performance module that has seen him triumph where his predecessors stumbled.

The result is a significant improvement in the efficiency of the national tax administration ecosystem. Adedeji stands at the epicenter of Nigeria’s fiscal history. Under his watch, Nigeria experienced the most profound fiscal reorganization leading to the overhaul of tax administration. By January 1, 2026, the nation’s tax system was consolidated into four new tax laws that repeal more than a dozen pre-existing tax laws. It is a journey to transform the national tax administration into a smarter, technology-enabled framework that promotes openness, efficiency and, above all, helps build public trust in the management of public finances.

On this point, instead of continuing with the old order of multiple tax regimes and confusing governance structure, the nation now has the Nigeria Tax Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act. All driven by an integrated pulley-like system. This fits well with Adedeji’s vision of an innovative tax administration, anchored in transparency and driven by technology.

Already from 2023 Adedeji has shown that he is a ready man. Not a newbie; nor a beginner. He is the nerd who is not only smart, but attentive to his duties. Easily ranked as one of President Tinubu’s best appointments, Adedeji has demonstrated a clear understanding of his duties as fiscal chief in a strained economy. Its main task is to ensure that previously accumulated leaks are stopped and that safety valves are integrated into the system. And he succeeded over time. The budget shows a progression in tax revenues in recent years, but the real peak occurred under Adedeji.

In 2021, ₦6.405 trillion was collected in taxes, bettering the ₦6.401 trillion target set for that fiscal year. It rose to ₦10.1 trillion in 2022. However, the pace started to change in pleasant tones in 2023 when ₦12.3 trillion was collected as tax revenue. By the end of 2024, as Adedeji had settled in and taken charge, making the mark of his transformative leadership, the fiscal haul had jumped to ₦21.7 trillion, a figure that surpassed the ₦19.4 trillion target for that year. It is a bold expression of President Tinubu’s renewed hope and speaks to the diligence and effective implementation of critical technology to drive revenue collection processes.

By 2025, the engine hit higher gear with a whopping ₦22.59 trillion raised in nine months from January to September that year. The agency had expected to collect ₦25.2 trillion for the full year, but achieved more, a record ₦28.3 trillion in total tax revenue collection. The 2025 tax revenue has obviously worked the nerves of Adedeji and his group into aiming higher. This time, the NRS has set an ambitious target of ₦40.7 trillion in revenue for 2026.

Recently, while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations alongside members of President Tinubu’s economic team, Adedeji attributed the increase in tax revenues to sweeping tax reforms that transferred oil royalties and other mineral revenues to the agency.

It said non-oil taxes generated ₦21.46 trillion, exceeding projections of ₦3.4 trillion.

He projected that the NRS will exceed actual 2025 collection, an ambition supported by projected oil production growth from 1.7 million barrels per day in 2025 to 1.8 million barrels per day in 2026, along with other gains from ongoing fiscal reforms.

A series of technological reforms under his watch brought flexibility in service delivery. This includes the National E-Invoicing Solution, a real-time e-invoicing system for large taxpayers to improve transparency, continuity and stop revenue leakages; introduction of the 829# USSD initiative, a mobile USSD code that allows taxpayers to easily retrieve TINs and verify customs clearance certificates; as well as updating the TaxPro-Max platform to automate over 80% of manual processes. This has largely eliminated human intrusion into the tax collection process and, ipso facto, reduced elements of corruption in the system.

Furthermore, among other reforms, he introduced the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACTU) in collaboration with the ICPC to eliminate corrupt practices and improve integrity within the service delivery system.

Above all, Adedeji has focused from day one on improving service delivery, staff welfare and introducing modern technology into tax administration. Clearly an anomaly, it has intentionally eliminated the warts and cracks that hindered service delivery in the old era. Using the same group of staff members, he outperformed his predecessors on all fronts. This is not magic. It’s called intentional leadership. Good management is one that can galvanize human capital, funds and technology to achieve set goals. This is exactly what Adedeji is doing at NRS; constantly improve the skills of staff, ensuring they have effective tools to enable them to comply with global best practices and good corporate governance.

He certainly understands the vision of his boss, President Tinubu, to grow the nation’s economy to the $1 trillion mark by 2030. And he is working on the rock to help realize this ambitious vision. He is the real McCoy among the President’s economic foot soldiers in a season of strategic economic reengineering.

·Okude, a public policy analyst, writes from Abuja.