President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has nominated renowned economist and tax reform advocate, Taiwo Oyedele, as the new Minister of State for Finance.
Oyedele, who currently chairs the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, will replace Doris Anite-Uzoka, who has been redeployed to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning as Minister of State — her third ministerial portfolio under the Tinubu administration.
The President conveyed the nomination to the Senate in a letter addressed to Senate President Godswill Akpabio. The development was disclosed in a statement issued Tuesday by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
Until his nomination, Oyedele led the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, inaugurated in August 2023. The committee delivered four executive bills that streamlined Nigeria’s tax framework, consolidating over 60 different taxes into fewer than 10 statutes.
Among the landmark reforms that took effect on January 1, 2026, are:
Zero income tax for Nigerians earning ₦800,000 annually or less
Exemption of small businesses with turnover below ₦50 million from company income tax, capital gains tax, and development levy
50% tax deduction for companies hiring new employees for three years
50% deduction for wage increases to the lowest-paid workers
Five-year corporate tax holiday for agricultural enterprises
The reforms are widely seen as central to the administration’s revenue drive and economic restructuring agenda.
A Career in Policy and Global Finance
The 50-year-old Oyedele hails from Ikaram in Akoko, Ondo State. He holds a Higher National Diploma in Accountancy and Finance from Yaba College of Technology and a BSc in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University.
He has also completed executive education programmes at the London School of Economics, Yale University, the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and the Harvard Kennedy School.
Oyedele spent 22 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), rising to become Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader before his appointment to head the tax reform committee.
Currently, he serves as a professor at Babcock University in Ogun State and a visiting scholar at the Lagos Business School.
If confirmed by the Senate in the coming weeks, Oyedele will work under the substantive Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, overseeing fiscal policy implementation, revenue mobilisation, and economic reform execution.
Observers say his appointment signals continuity in Nigeria’s tax reform agenda, particularly as the government seeks to boost non-oil revenue and strengthen fiscal sustainability.