Nigeria’s tax revenue has more than doubled in under three years, surging 113 per cent from ₦12.3 trillion in 2023 to ₦27.1 trillion as of July 2026, according to an internal report released on Sunday by the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS).
The revenue authority attributed the dramatic growth to systemic reforms under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, specifically citing the “digitisation of tax systems, four new tax reform laws, the transformation of the revenue service and an executive order that closed loopholes in the system.”
The report declared that following a period of initial instability, “the Nigerian economy has moved decisively from acute macroeconomic distress toward a more stable and increasingly resilient footing.”
According to the agency, the current administration inherited four severe structural bottlenecks that had undermined government earnings and growth: an unsustainable fuel subsidy, a non-performing oil sector, an opaque foreign exchange system that discouraged investors, and a tax base operating far below its capacity.
Although the initial phase of the reform programme caused widespread economic hardship, the report noted that key macroeconomic indicators are now demonstrating clear signs of recovery.
Central to this turnaround is a fundamental shift in Nigeria’s energy sector. The introduction of the government’s naira-for-crude framework with the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and other domestic facilities has transformed the nation from a long-standing net importer into a net exporter of refined petroleum products, a policy model Ghana has recently moved to replicate.
Concurrently, daily crude oil output has climbed from between 1.2 million and 1.3 million barrels per day in 2023 to 1.73 million barrels per day, equivalent to 104 per cent of Nigeria’s OPEC quota, significantly boosting foreign exchange reserves and public finances.
Beyond energy and fiscal revenues, the report highlighted broader indicators of economic confidence and social progress.