The Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), formerly the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), has recorded its strongest revenue performance on record, collecting N28.3 trillion in 2025 to exceed its 2025 approved target of N25.2 trillion by 12 per cent.
The milestone was disclosed on Tuesday in Abuja during the opening of a two-day management retreat themed “Designed to Adapt, Built to Deliver”, held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel.
The disclosure was made on behalf of the NRS Executive Chairman, Zacch Adedeji, by the Executive Director in charge of the Government and Large Taxpayers Group, Ms Amina Ado Kurawa.
According to a statement signed by the chairman’s Special Adviser on Media, Dare Adekanmbi, the agency’s 2026 revenue target has been fixed at N40.71 trillion, representing a 44 per cent increase over the 2025 benchmark.
Addressing management and staff earlier, Adedeji urged the workforce to abandon outdated institutional thinking, stressing that the credibility of Nigeria’s revenue framework and investor confidence in the economy largely depend on the agency’s effectiveness.
He warned that rigid leadership beliefs could obstruct progress, adding that adaptive leadership anchored on integrity and courage was essential to building a modern revenue institution.
Drawing insights from a leadership article published by the Harvard Business Review, the NRS chairman noted that leadership failure often stems not from lack of intelligence or strategy, but from deeply held assumptions that shape decisions and outcomes.
“The Nigeria Revenue Service will not be defined by what we say in this room. It will be defined by who we become after we leave it,” Adedeji said.
Non-Oil Revenue Dominates 2025 Performance
Providing a breakdown of the 2025 figures, Kurawa disclosed that non-oil taxes contributed N21.4 trillion, surpassing the projected N18 trillion, while oil taxes yielded N6.8 trillion, representing 95 per cent of the N7.2 trillion target.
Year-on-year performance showed strong growth across both segments, with oil tax revenue rising by 19 per cent and non-oil taxes increasing by 35 per cent compared to 2024.
She explained that oil tax revenue rose to N6.6 trillion in 2025 from N5.8 trillion in 2024, while non-oil tax collections jumped to N21.5 trillion, up from N15.9 trillion in the previous year.
The growth, she said, was driven by administrative reforms, expansion of the withholding tax system, enhanced digitalisation, improved compliance initiatives and stronger enforcement mechanisms introduced by the NRS.
Expanded Mandate Drives Higher 2026 Target
The statement further attributed the sharp rise in the 2026 target to the expanded mandate of the NRS as Nigeria’s revenue system integrator, including the collection of royalties previously handled by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and other revenue streams.
Edun Urges Nigerians to Buy Local
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, who joined the retreat virtually, urged Nigerians to prioritise locally produced goods, noting that domestic consumption directly strengthens revenue mobilisation.
Edun highlighted the imbalance in global capital flows, pointing out that developing countries paid more in debt servicing in 2024 than they received through foreign aid, foreign direct investment and private sector funding combined.
“Clearly, it is what we do for ourselves internally that will matter most at this time,” he said, while commending the NRS for its indispensable role in domestic revenue generation.
Call for Effective Tax Law Execution
Also speaking, the Chairman of the National Tax Policy Implementation Committee, Joseph Tegbe, emphasised that the success of Nigeria’s tax reforms would depend on precise execution rather than policy intent alone.
He warned that continued reliance on volatile oil revenues exposes the economy to external shocks, while rising public expenditure demands stable and predictable domestic revenue.
Tegbe stressed that history would ultimately judge the reforms by the level of trust rebuilt between the Nigerian state and its citizens, reaffirming that the NRS occupies a central role as the country’s revenue system integrator.