Headlines: You Fit The Bill, Tinubu Tells New Minister Taiwo Oyedele
The President thanked the new minister for his contribution to improving Nigeria’s tax policy, which he said had been obsolete.
President Bola Tinubu has said that he did not have a hard time deciding where and how newly-appointed Minister of State for Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, would fit in his cabinet.
Tinubu stated this on Monday at the swearing-in of Oyedele as a minister at the Presidential Villa.
“You are just a very dedicated and highly determined individual. It didn’t take much for me to decide where you fit and where you need to be to further help the country.
“It is a very challenging job to look at the fiscal policy and responsibility that comes with it at a time when economic stability is being experienced, but without exponential growth. It is always very difficult. But you fit the bill,” he stated.
The President thanked the new minister for his contribution to improving Nigeria’s tax policy, which he said had been obsolete.
He also thanked Oyedele’s wife for supporting her husband.
Tinubu nominated Oyedele as the Minister of State for Finance on March 3, 2026, to replace Doris Uzoka-Anite, who was moved to serve as the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning.
Days later, the Senate confirmed him as a minister-designate through a voice vote at the Committee of the Whole, after hours of screening.
Speaking during the screening he said his decades-long experience working on “global reforms regarding the ease of doing business and taxation across 180 countries” had prepared him for the role.
“I feel my background has prepared me to help my country by understanding what works globally and how to apply those lessons to our unique context,” he Oyedele added.
Oyedele is a former chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms.
His tenure as chairman led to the creation of four bills: the Nigeria Tax Bill, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill were passed by the National Assembly last year after months of extensive debates and controversies, and assented to by Tinubu on June 26, 2025.
The 50-year-old public policy expert, accountant, and economist was appointed by the President to chair the tax reform committee in July 2023.
The former fiscal policy partner and Africa tax leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) attended Yaba College of Technology and bagged a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accountancy and Finance.
Oyedele earned a BSc in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University, completed executive programmes at several global institutions, worked at PwC from 2001 for decades, and serves as a professor at Babcock University and a visiting scholar at Lagos Business School.
