By Tekena Amieyeofori
The Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Zacch Adedeji, has said that poverty in Nigeria would have worsened significantly if President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms had not been carried out. He argued that without the government’s intervention, the number of Nigerians slipping into poverty could have doubled.
Adedeji made the comments in a Sunday night interview on Channels Television.
During the interview, he defended the administration’s economic policies, saying they had produced tangible results and bolstered government revenue.
According to him, the NRS had raised almost the same amount of revenue in the first six months of 2026 as it did for the entire year of 2025. He added that this performance puts the agency on course to surpass N40 trillion in revenue for 2026.
He insisted that the situation would have been far more severe without the current administration’s reforms.
“If you remember where we are coming from, if we had not done what we were supposed to do, possibly double that population would have gone into poverty. I’m telling you that progress is what we should measure. Where are we coming from? That is the point I’m making,” Adedeji said.
The NRS boss said the reforms should be judged based on the economic situation the government inherited, not only on present-day hardships.
He further stated that the rise in government revenue had led to direct benefits for citizens. These, he listed, include stronger finances for state governments, the student loan scheme, greater access to credit for civil servants, and robust growth in the Nigerian stock market.
He noted that state governments are now able to pay salaries without relying on federal bailouts, while over one million students have benefited from education loans.
He also highlighted the rollout of credit scoring for civil servants and the jump in stock market capitalisation from roughly N30 trillion to N150 trillion as proof that the reforms have generated wealth and broadened economic opportunities.
In June, the IMF acknowledged that Nigeria’s reforms had improved macroeconomic stability and resilience. However, it said poverty and food insecurity had deepened, with an estimated 27 million Nigerians expected to fall into poverty by the last quarter of 2027.
The Fund noted that while fiscal and external sector indicators had improved, many Nigerians were still grappling with high living costs. It cautioned that rising global prices for fuel, food, and fertiliser could boost government earnings while simultaneously fuelling inflation and hardship for low-income households.
In response, the Federal Government said its focus was on ensuring that the recent macroeconomic gains translate into real improvements in the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
The IMF later restated its concern that Nigeria’s social protection framework was still too weak to effectively shield vulnerable households from the effects of the ongoing reforms.