The Executive Chairman of the National Revenue Service, Zach Adedeji, on Wednesday disclosed that the Service is targeting N40.7 trillion in taxes, petroleum royalties and other mineral revenues for 2026 following ongoing tax reforms.
Adedeji spoke when the President’s economic team, including the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, appeared before the House Committee on Appropriations to review the 2025 budget performance and present projections for 2026.
“In the light of the tax reforms that transfer petroleum and mineral royalty and other revenue to the NRS, the total target for taxes, royalty and other minerals is 40.7 trillion,” Adedeji said.
“We believe that with the support of the House that we would be able to achieve what we propose,” he added.
Providing a breakdown of the 2025 performance, Adedeji said the Service exceeded its N25.2 trillion target, which itself was N3.5 trillion higher than the 2024 actual collection.
“For the year 2025, the revenue target for the service was 25.2 trillion, an increase of 3.5 trillion compared to actual revenue collected in 2024. The service has succeeded in 2025 target by collecting 28.23 trillion. This is due to exceptional performance from non oil taxes,” he said.
According to him, non-oil taxes outperformed expectations significantly.
“Non oil taxes exceeded their target by collecting 21.46 trillion an increase of 3.4 trillion. Meanwhile oil taxes fell short of the target by 5.2 percent. Overall the service exceeded it’s target by 3 trillion which is 12 percent compared to the target we had for 2025,” Adedeji stated.
Comparing year-on-year performance, he said: “When you compare 2025 performance to 2024, the service collected 6.5 trillion more what we did in 2024. That is an increase of 30.3 percent. This is driven significantly by non oil taxes.”
On projections for 2026, Adedeji said the Service expects revenue to rise to N32.14 trillion, driven partly by improved oil production forecasts.
“For the 2026 target in the light of the forecast that we have for oil, from that 25.2 trillion that we did last year, we forecasted that we would do 32.14 trillion for 2026 which is 3.85 trillion higher than the actual collection in 2025. The increase is forecast on oil related to non oil is due to higher production forecast from 1.7 million per day in 2025 to 1.8 million barrels per in 2026,” he saidDuring the session, lawmakers raised concerns over the reported zero capital performance in the 2025 budget.
Responding, Edun said that before the administration of Bola Tinubu, the government relied heavily on Ways and Means financing to cover fiscal deficits, while the Nigerian National Petroleum Company funded petrol subsidies through under-recovery arrangements.
He described the approach as unsustainable.
According to him, the President halted the unchecked Ways and Means advances, which had risen to about N30 trillion, as part of efforts to restore macroeconomic stability, though the move created a significant funding gap.
Edun added that the issue of zero capital performance in the 2025 budget had been delegated to the Minister of State for Finance, who has been invited to appear before the committee.
Bagudu, on his part, said engagements with the National Assembly led to an agreement to move 70 percent of the 2025 capital allocation into 2026.
“Steps are being taken. The president has demonstrated that he has issued an executive order which we believe is consistent with the agreement reached that 2026 budget that will be coming will have chances of it being better funded would be put in place,” he said.
