{"id":23196,"date":"2025-11-01T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=23196"},"modified":"2025-10-31T20:07:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T19:07:55","slug":"pay-up-or-shut-down-nigerias-2026-tax-law-divides-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/01\/pay-up-or-shut-down-nigerias-2026-tax-law-divides-citizens\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay Up or Shut Down: Nigeria\u2019s 2026 Tax Law Divides Citizens."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ABUJA, Nigeria (FN) \u2014 A former political economic adviser at the World Bank, Dr. Mahmoud Alfa, has called on Nigerians to support the 2026 tax reform law, emphasizing that the success of President Bola Tinubu\u2019s fiscal agenda hinges on public trust and responsible governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement issued Friday in Abuja, Alfa, who also serves as CEO of Vibranium Group, described the Tinubu administration\u2019s economic reforms as \u201cbold and necessary,\u201d noting that while progress is visible, skepticism remains among citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the Tinubu-led administration promises reforms to fix the multiple-taxation problems to at least improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria, a survey with some of the citizens will easily show that the change is not where it should be yet, but there are positive improvements,\u201d Alfa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He acknowledged that many Nigerians, particularly traders, continue to face multiple layers of taxation, despite the country being under-taxed relative to global standards. He argued that taxation is essential for national development and that Nigeria\u2019s overreliance on debt is unsustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIn Nigeria, the citizens will gladly evade tax, and there are hardly cases of citizens being jailed for tax evasion,\u201d Alfa said. \u201cRefusing to pay tax is a crime, same as stealing the taxes is a crime. It is more of a chicken-and-egg situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alfa stressed the need for mutual accountability, urging both citizens and government to rebuild trust. \u201cPaying taxes and managing them transparently are two sides of the same coin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also commended Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, for leading public engagement efforts ahead of the law\u2019s implementation on Jan. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oyedele recently projected that Nigerian states could earn over N4 trillion annually from the new Value Added Tax (VAT) structure, which will increase states\u2019 share of VAT revenue to 55 percent. Speaking at the launch of the BudgIT State of States 2025 Report, he noted that while government revenues have surged \u2014 with Federation Account Allocation Committee transfers rising from N5.4 trillion in 2023 to N11.4 trillion in 2024 \u2014 many Nigerians have yet to feel the benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStates are receiving more money than ever before. But there is a paradox: while governments have more naira, ordinary Nigerians have less disposable income in their pockets,\u201d Oyedele said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He urged state governors to prioritize investments in infrastructure, education, and healthcare, warning that poor implementation could undermine the goals of the reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 tax reform law, signed by President Tinubu in June 2025, consolidates and modernizes Nigeria\u2019s tax framework. It aims to streamline tax collection, reduce redundancies, and improve compliance while fostering fiscal independence for subnational governments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABUJA, Nigeria (FN) \u2014 A former political economic adviser at the World Bank, Dr. Mahmoud Alfa, has called on Nigerians to support the 2026 tax reform law, emphasizing that the success of President Bola Tinubu\u2019s fiscal agenda hinges on public trust and responsible governance. In a statement issued Friday in Abuja, Alfa, who also serves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-naija-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/A-former-Political-Economic-Adviser-at-the-World-Bank-Dr.-Mahmoud-Alfa.jpg?fit=670%2C488&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23196"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23200,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23196\/revisions\/23200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}