Economy
70% of Lagos IGR Comes from Taxes—LIRS Chairman
By Dipo Olowookere
The executive chairman of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), Mr Ayodele Subair, has said about 70 per cent of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) comes from taxes paid by individuals and organisations doing business in the metropolis.
Mr Subair made this disclosure when he received the Managing Director of New Telegraph Newspapers, Mr Ayodele Aminu, and the Daily Editor of the media platform, Ms Juliet Bumah, in his office in Alausa, recently.
The management of the Daily Telegraph Publishing Company Limited, publishers of New Telegraph Newspapers, visited the LIRS chief to inform him of the decision to honour him with an award of leadership excellence at a ceremony to be held later in the year.
Mr Aminu said the LIRS boss was chosen because of his remarkable contributions to the development of the state and the country, especially in the tax sector.
But Mr Subair attributed the tax revolution in Lagos State to the former Governor of the state and presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 general elections, Mr Bola Tinubu, saying he contributed to the significant boost to the Lagos IGR.
“He is the father of this tax revolution in Lagos State. So, we must always give him that credit. Since he made the LIRS board autonomous, the numbers have been leaping in bounds, and we hope to continue on that trajectory because we have to provide the funding for the state.
“The incumbent Governor (Babajide Sanwo-Olu) has been very supportive of our innovations and fresh ideas in tax administration in Lagos State,” he said.
The LIRS leader said Mr Tinubu must be commended for having the vision to “create some independent agencies like the LIRS and making the state less reliant on the federal government’s allocation.”
Speaking on the award, Mr Subair noted, “The joy is when there is a bit of recognition, then you feel justified, you feel happy that you have spent all those long hours burning candles at night and so forth justifiably. I’m very pleased that you have deemed it fit to honour the agency and me. I assure you that management would be well represented at the award ceremony, God’s willing.”
“It is a moment like this that we feel very glad we have put ourselves at the service of our dear state. We usually don’t get any recognition internally or externally; rather, it is you can always do better. But in our world, our numbers speak for themselves.
“In your letter, you said we almost doubled our internal revenue generation since the inception of our tenure, but in fact, it’s more than double,” he added.
While commending the staff of the LIRS for their dedication and steadfastness, the LIRS boss said, “We are delighted that we have been able to achieve all those things. It’s all from dedicated leadership and followership.
“The staff plays a very big role in making our numbers rise. Management directs and formulates the policies and all the various processes that generate such income, but at the same time, we need to commend the foot soldiers; they are the ones out in the field who help us to advocate for taxpayers to try and be tax compliant, to respect the social contracts, and to understand that if they want the state to improve in terms of provision of infrastructure and quality services, they also need to contribute.”
Mr Subair advised Nigerians, especially Lagos residents, not to relent in their duties by paying their taxes regularly and diligently as it would help the government provide infrastructure and social amenities as attainable in developed countries.
“Everybody goes to the UK, U.S and they are all marvelled at the level of their infrastructure, good road network, free education, electricity and all other things. All these are made possible because the people are highly tax-compliant in that clime. Nobody is chasing anyone about paying taxes.
“If you don’t pay tax, the sanctions are there. People go to jail. There are no two ways about it. But unfortunately, in Africa, extending to Nigeria and Lagos, people don’t want to pay taxes.
“Yes, globally, people don’t want to pay; if they could avoid it, they would avoid it, So it makes our job very difficult and trickier,” he noted.
The LIRS chairman said while tax is the most sustainable revenue, it took the federal government so long to start looking inward as tax is funding the operations of the federal government right now.
“The federal government is not getting much from the oil industry like before. So it is just what FIRS is doing that is helping. Likewise, in Lagos, all the federal receipts have gone down considerably, so it’s mostly what we are generating here and some other revenue-generating agencies,” he said.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Deep Offshore Oil and Gas Projects Incentives (Tax Remission) Order, 2026, approved recently by President Bola Tinubu, has been described as a landmark reform that significantly enhances Nigeria’s competitiveness for deep offshore investment and strengthens the nation’s pathway towards achieving its 3 million barrels of oil per day (MMbopd) production ambition by 2030.
The chief executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mr Bayo Ojulari, in a statement signed by the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC, Mr Andy Odeh, said the development is one of the most significant policy interventions for the upstream sector in recent years.
He thanked Mr Tinubu for his relentless leadership and unwavering commitment to creating an enabling environment for investment and sustainable growth in Nigeria’s energy sector through several Presidential Executive Orders which have strengthened the nation’s oil and gas sector.
“This is a transformative reform that sends a strong signal to global investors that Nigeria is committed to providing a stable, competitive and investment-friendly environment for deep offshore development. Fiscal certainty is a critical driver of investment decisions, and this framework provides the additional clarity the industry has long sought,” he said.
“For NNPC, the order aligns directly with our strategy of protecting our existing production base, accelerating near-term growth, and attracting new investment into high-value assets. It strengthens our confidence in achieving our strategic production ambition of 3 MMbopd while creating greater value for our shareholders and the Nigerian economy,” the NNPC chief added.
Mr Ojulari noted that recent reforms across the petroleum sector have already stimulated more than $34 billion in new investment commitments, stating that the Deep Offshore Incentives Order is expected to build on that momentum by enabling timely FIDs on strategic offshore developments.
The new order establishes a transparent, predictable and globally competitive fiscal framework for qualifying greenfield deep offshore developments. It provides the certainty required to unlock long-term capital, accelerate Final Investment Decisions (FIDs), and maximise value from Nigeria’s offshore resources.
The framework, which reinforces Nigeria’s position as one of the world’s attractive destinations for deep offshore oil and gas development, is expected to unlock over $50 billion in new investments, including major projects starting with Bonga South-West, which was approved in March 2026, and the Zabazaba and Owowo Deep Offshore projects. Bonga South West is expected to be the first FID on a Nigeria deepwater Production Sharing Contract asset since 2008.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The board of Geregu Power Plc has acknowledged the concerns raised by shareholders, stakeholders, as well as regulators over the inability of the company to pay bondholders for their investment in its N40 billion bond sale.
There were reports that the power-generating organisation defaulted in repaying investors who bought its debt instrument.
In 2022, the company issued a seven-year paper to investors at a coupon of 14.5 per cent to be paid semi-annually. The note is expected to mature in July 2029. But data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that there have been defaults in the 8th coupon payment and the 4th bullet principal repayment.
Reacting to the issue on Thursday, Geregu said it is actively having talks with advisers and others on ways to iron things out.
“Geregu remains actively engaged with relevant stakeholders and advisers regarding the resolution of the various challenges and is committed to achieving an orderly and mutually beneficial outcome.
“Discussions and engagements are ongoing, and the Company will continue to act in good faith in fulfilling its responsibilities,” part of the statement signed by its scribe, The Structure HQ, stated.
The firm explained that since assuming responsibility for its affairs, the current board and management have undertaken a comprehensive review and reconciliation of its transactions, liabilities, operational commitments, financing arrangements, financial obligations and related corporate documentation.
It stressed that this action was to ensure transparency, accuracy and prudent financial management, adding that it remains committed to transparency, responsible corporate governance and constructive engagement with all stakeholders.
The majority stake of Geregu Power was controlled by Mr Femi Otedola. He divested his stake in the energy firm in 2025, with the sale of 95 per cent of his shares in Amperion to MA”AM Energy.
Earlier in 2023, he sold N399 million shares of Geregu to another investor. Before then, he sold his stake in Forte Oil to invest in Geregu Power, which now has the former Governor of Zamfara State, Mr Abdulaziz Yari, as its chairman.
By Adedapo Adesanya
A former Commissioner for Insurance of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr Mohamed Kari, has warned the federal government to reduce its intervention in the sector’s post-recapitalisation process.
He charged the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, to ignore calls for regulatory concessions in the just-concluded insurance industry recapitalisation exercise in the country.
The call, he said, was critical, especially when the companies clamouring for such concessions were chronic defaulters whose failure or strict regulatory discipline poses absolutely zero systemic risk to the Nigerian financial system or the broader economy.
Recall that NAICOM had requested insurance companies, as part of the recapitalisation process, to transfer their entire recapitalisation funds into an escrow account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). However, NICON Insurance and Nigeria Re, in a recent petition, had petitioned NAICOM over what they described as unlawful fees and regulatory demands arising from the implementation of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025.
Mr Kari, who was also a former chief executive of NICON Insurance and Nigeria Re, said it was globally accepted that a government may occasionally intervene to rescue or support a consequential player in the financial sector, strictly where its distress poses a genuine ‘too big to fail’ systemic risk whose collapse would trigger a wider economic catastrophe.
“However, one must examine the reality of the two institutions in question today. These are no longer the market giants they once were decades ago,” he said.
He warned that having suffered years of steep decline, loss of market share, and severe operational shrinkage, their current market footprint is virtually insignificant.
“Their failure or strict regulatory discipline poses absolutely zero systemic risk to the Nigerian financial system or the broader economy. Why then should government intervene to shield operators whose distress carries no systemic consequence whatsoever?
“Rescuing or granting regulatory concessions to insignificant, chronic defaulters cannot be justified under any sound macroeconomic policy,” he added.
“When political intervention steps in to shield such non-systemic entities from standard regulatory checks, the equilibrium of the market breaks down as it creates unfair advantage.
“Operators that meet compliance targets carry the full cost of regulatory fidelity, while non-compliant firms that secure political exemptions operate with an artificial cost advantage.
“It disincentivises real capacity building: When political lobbying becomes an alternative to recapitalisation, companies are discouraged from making the hard structural choices necessary to refine their balance sheets and operations.”
He noted that if such a concession is granted to both insurance industry players in the defunct, it “distorts investor confidence: Both domestic and international investors look for predictable, transparent environments. A playing field where rules can be bent for select players frightens away patient capital. It weakens policyholder protection.”
