The Executive Chairman of the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS), Zacch Adedeji, has identified technology as the cornerstone for the effective implementation of Nigeria’s newly enacted tax laws, describing the reforms as a fundamental restructuring of the nation’s fiscal architecture.
Adedeji made the assertion on Wednesday while delivering the maiden convocation lecture of Federal Polytechnic Ayede, located in Ogo-Oluwa Local Government Area of Oyo State.
According to a statement issued by his Technical Assistant on Print Media, Sikiru Akinola, the NRS boss highlighted infrastructure deficits, skills gaps, public trust concerns, and resistance to change as the most pressing challenges confronting tax administration in Nigeria.
In his lecture titled “The Role of Technology in Implementing Nigeria’s New Tax Laws: Challenges, Prospects, and Implications for National Development,” Adedeji said the newly enacted tax laws represent the most sweeping overhaul of Nigeria’s fiscal legislation in five decades.
He explained that although the reforms are often framed as legal adjustments, they go far beyond amendments to rates, definitions, or administrative powers.
“These laws are not merely changing rates, definitions, or administrative powers. They are quietly redefining how authority operates within the tax system,” he said. “This is a complete structural overhaul, signaling the end of tax collection as a manual task and the beginning of tax intelligence.”
Adedeji noted that the new framework presupposes reliable taxpayer identification systems, integrated inter-agency data, traceable transactions, automated processes, and scalable enforcement mechanisms.
“In other words, these laws are built for a digital environment. They cannot function properly in a manual, fragmented, paper-based system,” he stated. “Without technology, the laws remain aspirational. With technology, they become operational.”
He further explained that excessive human discretion in tax administration has historically led to inconsistencies, mistrust, and non-compliance.
By embedding automation and data-driven processes into the system, he argued, the NRS aims to enhance transparency, predictability, and public confidence.
One of the major prospects of a technology-driven tax regime, Adedeji said, is the expansion of the tax base without increasing tax rates.
“By improving visibility and bringing previously unseen economic activity into view, technology levels the playing field. When compliance broadens, the pressure on the existing base reduces, fairness improves, and legitimacy grows. This is how modern tax systems grow revenue sustainably,” he added.
In his remarks, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, urged graduating students to serve as worthy ambassadors of their alma mater. He was represented at the event by Senator AbdulFatai Buhari, who represents Oyo North Senatorial District.
Abbas also commended the NRS chairman for spearheading reforms aimed at modernising Nigeria’s tax administration.
Similarly, the Chairman of the institution’s Governing Council, Yakubu Datti, praised Adedeji for driving what he described as a re-engineering of Nigeria’s tax architecture.
The Rector of the institution, Dr. Taofeek Adekunle Abdul-Hameed, encouraged the graduating students to emulate Adedeji’s career trajectory, noting that he began his professional journey in a polytechnic before rising to national prominence.
The lecture underscored a central theme: that Nigeria’s new tax laws are not merely legislative adjustments, but a strategic pivot toward a data-driven and technology-enabled fiscal system designed to enhance compliance, broaden the tax net, and support sustainable national development.