The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, has offered a clearer explanation of how Nigeria’s upcoming tax intelligence system will track financial behaviour to identify potential tax evasion.
Speaking on The Micon Podcast, Oyedele noted that the framework will aggregate data from multiple sources to build a detailed financial profile for individuals.
“This is the whole essence of the intelligence we are trying to piece together — what happens in your bank account, when you travel abroad, how you use your payment card, electricity, your phone. All those information,” he said.
He stressed that the government is not targeting low-income earners, saying minor financial discrepancies are not the concern.
“Government will not go after you if you earn 50k and you spend 90k. They are not looking for those small money. It’s not worth it. It’s usually those big numbers.”
According to him, once the system verifies a person’s financial footprint and detects inconsistencies, it will reveal whether the individual has defaulted on payments.
“By the time the system validates what you’re doing, we will be able to know if you have not paid it. If you cannot explain yourself, and your tax is 1 million, under this new law from next year, if you have a bank account, we can debit your bank account,” Oyedele stated.
He added that the new approach marks a shift from Nigeria’s old, forceful enforcement style.
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He describes it as a move away from “using hammers and nails to chase people for tax,” towards a more professional and intelligence-driven system.
