At 160th Meeting, Joint Revenue Board Assesses Progress in Implementation of Tax Reform

• Says reform has reduced tax burden on low-income earners, micro-scale businesses

The Joint Revenue Board (JRB), apex body for revenue administration in Nigeria, has undertaken an assessment of the progress and challenges of the tax reform, one year into the commencement of its implementation.

The Board at its 160th meeting said it was imperative for revenue authorities to come together to reflect on their experiences under the new revenue regime and chart the way forward where concerns arise.

The meeting with the theme “One Year of Reform: Assessing Progress and Addressing Challenges”, held between the 1st and 2nd September 2026 in Kaduna State, was declared open by the host state Governor, Senator Uba Sani.

Governor Sani said the tax reform has expanded the opportunities for domestic resource mobilisation for the development of the country, stating that the deeper benefits of the reform would be to build institutions that will sustain the gains of the reform and command the confidence of taxpayers.

“The objective of the reform should not be simply to collect revenue, it should be to build a tax system in which compliance becomes easier, enforcement becomes more intelligent and voluntary compliance becomes a norm”, he cautioned.

The governor urged the JRB to use the meeting to identify bottlenecks that impede revenue collection, institutional weaknesses that create friction between revenue authorities and opportunities through which technology can deliver more efficiency in revenue administration.

In his opening remarks, the Chairman, Joint Revenue Board, Dr. Zacch Adedeji, who was represented by the Executive Director Finance and Corporate Services, Nigeria Revenue Service, Alhaji Muhammad L. Abubakar, said the theme of the 160th meeting is a call on the Board to take stock of the progress made in the implementation of the reform, remediate identified gaps and confront the challenges that may emerge.

He further stated that “while encouraging progress has been recorded in institutional reform, digitalisation, data integration, harmonisation and collaboration, the ultimate measure of success of the reform must be improved revenue mobilisation, greater compliance, a better taxpayer experience and stronger contribution to national development.”

Giving an overview of the progress made one year into the implementation of the tax reform, the Executive Secretary of the JRB, Mr. Olusegun Adesokan, hinted that 18 State Houses of Assembly have domesticated the model harmonised taxes and levies law, a legislation which has reduced the over 50 collection items hitherto administered by states and local government areas to nine sub-heads, abolishes cash collection and mounting of roadblocks for collection of revenue.

This, he said, has recorded a significant success in the harmonisation of taxes and levies by the subnational.

Addressing the misconception that the tax reform has increased taxes, Adesokan said the reform has rather reduced tax burden on low-income earners, eliminated multiple nuisance taxes while providing reliefs for low income-earners and micro-scale businesses.

The Executive Secretary appreciated the Kaduna State Governor for his continued support for the tax reform and for nominating a member of the Board and outgoing Executive Chairman of Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Jerry Adams as his running mate for the 2027 gubernatorial election.

Earlier in his welcome address, the outgoing Executive Chairman of Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Jerry Adams, acknowledged the collaboration between revenue authorities and other stakeholder agencies within the tax ecosystem, saying that such relationship has proven useful in the implementation of the tax reforms.

Adams said tax compliance in Kaduna State has risen from about 35 per cent to 65 per cent in the last three years under Governor Sani, a win he attributed to increased taxpayers’ confidence in the performance of the governor whom he said has delivered many life-touching projects cutting across sectors including health, agriculture, education and infrastructure.

The Joint Revenue Board is composed of the 38 revenue authorities in the country, including the Nigeria Revenue Service, the 36 States and the FCT Internal Revenue Services.

It also has the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Nigeria Customs Service, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Road Safety Commission, National Identity Management Commission and the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria.

The 160th meeting was the second held by the Joint Revenue Board in 2026.