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Ekiti State’s Internal Revenue Service said Saturday it has sustained growth in internally generated revenue through voluntary taxpayer compliance rather than enforcement, reporting a 33.2 percent year-on-year increase in monthly collections even after suspending roadblocks and business-premises sealing more than a year ago.
Chairman of the Ekiti State Internal Revenue Service, Olaniran Olatona, gave the assessment in Ado Ekiti, crediting residents and taxpayers for voluntarily meeting their obligations and describing the trend as central to the state’s steady IGR growth.
Olatona disclosed that the state’s IGR reached 2.75 billion naira in June 2026, up from 2.06 billion naira in June 2025. He said collections have held a stable plateau around 2.74 billion naira since April 2026, indicating the growth has settled into a sustained pattern rather than a temporary spike.
He attributed the improvement to automation and digitalization of tax collection, which he said has expanded payment channels, widened the tax net, and reduced revenue leakages. A broader and more formalized Pay-As-You-Earn base, along with stronger withholding tax compliance, also contributed to the gains, according to Olatona.
“EKIRS remains committed to building a fair and sustainable revenue system that supports economic growth while ensuring every taxpayer contributes an equitable share to the development of Ekiti State,” he said.
Olatona framed the agency’s approach as fundamentally non-punitive. “Our responsibility is not to punish taxpayers but to ensure fairness. We are more interested in helping businesses grow because thriving businesses ultimately translate into sustainable revenue for government,” he said.
He expressed confidence that EKIRS would surpass its internal monthly revenue target of over 3 billion naira before year’s end, citing improved compliance and taxpayer participation rather than any planned rate increases. He said the agency’s strategy is to widen the tax base by bringing more eligible taxpayers into the system, rather than raising tax rates or introducing new taxes, while continuing to deploy technology and data intelligence to identify previously untaxed income within the bounds of relevant data protection regulations.
Olatona said EKIRS is collaborating with state ministries, departments, and agencies, along with local government councils, to introduce a central billing system intended to eliminate multiple tax collections and simplify the payment process for taxpayers dealing with more than one collecting authority.
Addressing recent protests over what demonstrators characterized as a tax increase in the state, Olatona said he was surprised that affected taxpayers had not pursued the legal channels available to challenge their assessments. He clarified that the Notices of Assessment recently issued were meant only to inform taxpayers of their liabilities for the 2024 and 2025 tax years and should not be read as enforcement actions.
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The notices were issued under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, which grants taxpayers the right to formally object to an assessment by submitting a written objection to the relevant tax authority within 30 days of receipt, Olatona said, adding that the law requires tax authorities to respond to such objections within 90 days.
He said EKIRS remains committed to reviewing genuine complaints, including cases where taxpayers faced difficulty meeting procedural requirements, and said the agency has intensified taxpayer education through engagement with market associations, landlords’ associations, religious organizations, and other stakeholder groups. He encouraged market associations to engage tax consultants to help members understand tax laws, resolve disputes, and maintain proper financial records.
The Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, cited by Olatona as the legal basis for the assessment notices, forms part of a broader overhaul of Nigeria’s tax framework passed under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, which consolidated and revised procedural rules governing how federal, state, and local tax authorities issue assessments, handle objections, and administer collections nationwide. The objection and response timelines Olatona described, a 30-day window for taxpayers and a 90-day response requirement for authorities, are among the procedural safeguards the Act introduced as part of that consolidation, applicable to state revenue services such as EKIRS in addition to federal tax administration.
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Ekiti’s emphasis on automation and PAYE formalization mirrors a broader trend among Nigerian state revenue services in recent years, as several states have invested in digital tax platforms to reduce reliance on physical enforcement, such as roadblocks and premises sealing, methods that have drawn public criticism in various states for disrupting business activity and inviting allegations of extortion by revenue officials.
Olatona’s statement did not disclose how many taxpayers were affected by the recent protests, the specific nature of the disputed assessments, or how many objections, if any, EKIRS has received and processed since issuing the 2024 and 2025 Notices of Assessment.
