Nigeria has fewer than 10 million active individual taxpayers, Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, said Tuesday. He described the tax base as narrow and called for data-led reforms to expand subnational revenue, particularly in Lagos.
Speaking at the Tax Reform Summit 2026 in Lagos, Oyedele stressed the need for reliable property and taxpayer databases. “In Nigeria today, the number of active individual taxpayers is under 10 million for the whole country,” he said, urging Lagos to build a tax environment supported by credible data.
He highlighted property taxation as a stable but underused revenue source, estimating Lagos could earn up to ₦1 trillion yearly if just two million properties were taxed at 0.5% of an average ₦100 million value. Several states have adopted the committee’s model harmonisation law, and he urged Lagos to follow.