The Federal Government says the newly-enacted tax reforms were crafted to ease the burden on Nigerians, not worsen it, insisting that widespread misinformation is fuelling needless fear and anger across the country.

Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, made the clarification during a courtesy visit to the National Orientation Agency in Abuja, on Friday.

Oyedele said the purpose of the visit was to seek the NOA’s support in educating citizens about the tax policies, noting that misinformation threatened to derail a reform package he described as “the most consequential and beneficial” of his career.

“You can say subsidy removal came with some amount of pain and sacrifice. Naira floatation also means people have to pay more, but this tax reform is coming with benefits.

” Exemption for small businesses, exemption for workers, low-income earners, middle class; reduce their taxes, big companies reduce their taxes, harmonize taxes,” he said.

The tax reform laws were signed by President Bola Tinubu in October 2025 as part of a sweeping overhaul aimed at simplifying Nigeria’s complex tax system.

With implementation set to begin on January 1, 2026, the reforms introduce exemptions for small businesses, reduced tax burdens for workers and the middle class, lower corporate taxes, and harmonisation of multiple taxes across federal, state and local governments. They also streamline compliance procedures and eliminate nuisance taxes to boost investment.

Oyedele explained that the committee had compiled “50 tax exemptions and reliefs” that would benefit Nigerians but lamented that many citizens, misled by online falsehoods, believed the reforms would impose new burdens.

“Sadly, as good as the reform is, if you go on the streets and ask people about the tax reform, there are people who say they can’t wait to protest on the 1st of January.

“Unfortunately, in our environment, if you have good news, it doesn’t go viral… but misinformation goes viral very quickly,” he said.

He cited a false information circulating among farmers in the North that government planned to seize one out of every four baskets of produce, describing it as a deliberate distortion.

He added that misinformation had also taken ethnic and religious dimensions, stressing the need for NOA’s involvement in communicating the reform’s benefits in local languages and through relatable characters—farmers, students and CEOs—so that “people do not translate this good intention of the government… into a chaotic situation.”

Responding, NOA Director-General, Lanre Issa-Onilu, described the reforms as “the first comprehensive, far-reaching response in the fiscal and tax space we have seen,” noting that the agency fully understood its responsibility.

“I must understand beyond the level of an average Nigerian to communicate to them,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of publications… but as you understand more, you realize there is a lot more to say.”

He pledged the deployment of NOA’s extensive nationwide network to disseminate accurate information about the reforms.

Issa-Onilu noted that the agency works with nearly 200 radio stations broadcasting in 72 local languages, 36 television channels, and maintains partnerships with major networks including NTA, Channels, AIT, TVC, Arise and News Central.

“We have offices and personnel in all the 774 local governments,” he said. “These are experienced communicators and mobilisers with lived experience in sensitizing the public.”

“These are part of the tools of engagement we deploy daily, and we will put them at the committee’s disposal to ensure Nigerians are properly informed,” he added. (The PUNCH)

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