By Egena Sunday Ode
Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zaccheus Adedeji, has allayed fears over the Federal Government’s borrowing strategy, stressing that debt remains a legitimate tool for growth and infrastructure financing, not a sign of crisis.
He also debunked claims that devaluation of the Naira had been largely accountable for the increasing government’s revenues. According to him, the naira has only depreciated, not devalued, explaining that it’s a consequence of demand outweighing supply of foreign exchange.
The FIRS boss also confirmed that reforms in Personal Income Tax (PIT) and Company Income Tax (CIT) will commence from January 2026 to align with Nigeria’s fiscal year.
Adedeji spoke when he fielded questions from newsmen at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Tuesday.
Specifically, he was responding to a question on the recent assertion by President Bola Tinubu that the federal government had met its revenue target and would, therefore, no longer borrow to finance its activities.
On the controversial Central Bank “Ways and Means” facility, the FIRS chairman explained that the Tinubu administration had ended the practice of direct overdraft financing.
The outstanding exposure, he said, was converted into a structured federal loan now being serviced with both principal and interest payments.
“One of the key decisions of Mr. President was to collateralize Ways and Means. We stopped printing. The entire loan is now recognized in the federal government’s books as a formal obligation, and we are repaying capital and interest according to the approved tenor. That is why the system has stabilized and why pressure on the exchange rate has eased,” he said.
Responding to criticism that government continues to borrow despite improved revenue performance, the tax chief insisted that borrowing is part of every national budget.
“A budget has three pillars, expenditure, revenue, and loans. If my expenditure is N100,000, revenue is N90,000, and borrowing is N10,000 in line with what is approved by the National Assembly, what is wrong with that? No country survives solely on revenue,” he argued.
