By Boluwatife Oshadiya | March 4, 2026
Key Points
- Federal Government bans all cash tax collection nationwide
- Roadblocks for revenue enforcement prohibited under new regulations
- Nano and small businesses earning ₦12m or below exempted from presumptive tax
Main Story
The Federal Government has prohibited cash collection of taxes and banned the mounting of roadblocks for revenue enforcement as part of new regulations implementing Nigeria’s tax reform framework.
The Executive Secretary of the Joint Revenue Board, Olusegun Adesokan, announced the measures on Tuesday in Abuja during the signing of the Presumptive Tax Regulations and Implementation Guidelines. Adesokan said the framework aims to eliminate informal, coercive, and fragmented tax practices, particularly at the subnational level.
“It bans all forms of cash collection by tax authorities. It also bans the mounting of roadblocks for the collection of taxes,” Adesokan said.
Under the new structure, nano and small businesses with annual turnover of ₦12 million and below are exempted from tax under the presumptive regime. Other categories of informal businesses will pay a one per cent tax on turnover, with payments encouraged through technology-driven systems.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said the signing marked the operational rollout of tax reforms enacted in 2025 and early 2026.
“With the signing of these regulations, we are transitioning from regulation to structured implementation of the tax reforms,” Edun said.
He added that the objective was not to raise rates but to expand the tax base in a coordinated manner across federal, state, and local governments.
The Issues
Nigeria’s informal sector accounts for over 80 per cent of employment but has historically contributed minimally to structured public revenue due to administrative fragmentation and complex compliance processes.
Chairman of the National Tax Policy Implementation Committee, Joseph Tegbe, said systemic weaknesses had discouraged participation.
“The informal sector employs more than 80 per cent of the workforce yet its contribution to structured public revenue has been disproportionately low, not because they are unwilling to pay but because our framework was either too complex or did not reflect operational realities,” Tegbe said.
The reforms align with the administration’s broader growth target of achieving seven per cent GDP expansion and positioning Nigeria toward a one trillion dollar economy by 2030.
What’s Being Said
“These regulations are another demonstration of the President’s commitment to taxing prosperity and not poverty,” Adesokan said.
“We will expand the tax base, not raising taxes, but expanding so that each bears his rightful contribution to the common cause,” Edun added.
What’s Next
- Subnational governments are expected to align enforcement structures with the new framework immediately
- The ombudsman mechanism introduced under the reforms will begin monitoring compliance
- Revenue authorities are expected to transition fully to technology-driven payment systems in the coming months
