Bola Tinubu has sworn in Taiwo Oyedele as minister of state for finance during a ceremony at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The swearing-in took place Monday at about 2:30 p.m. at the president’s office, according to a source who attended the brief ceremony.
The appointment came five days after the Nigerian Senate confirmed Oyedele’s nomination.
Oyedele and his wife were earlier seen entering the presidential villa after being cleared by security at about 2:09 p.m. He wore a navy blue suit, while his wife appeared in white traditional attire.
The Senate confirmed Oyedele on March 12 through a voice vote after a screening session that lasted more than two hours. Godswill Akpabio, president of the Senate, announced the confirmation after lawmakers adopted the recommendation of the Committee of the Whole.
Tinubu had transmitted Oyedele’s nomination to the Senate on March 3 in a letter addressed to Akpabio, seeking confirmation in line with Section 147(2) of the 1999 Constitution.
Oyedele, 50, is from Ikaram-Akoko in Ondo State and has more than two decades of experience in fiscal policy and tax administration.
Before his nomination, he served as chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, which oversaw a broad overhaul of Nigeria’s tax system.
The committee, inaugurated in August 2023, produced four executive bills aimed at consolidating more than 60 taxes into fewer than 10 statutes and introducing reforms, including zero income tax for Nigerians earning 800,000 naira or less annually.
The 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 in 2025 after extensive debate.
Tinubu signed the bills into law on June 26, 2025. The tax reform acts took effect Jan. 1, 2026.
The reforms also exempted small businesses with turnover below 50 million naira from company income tax, capital gains tax and withholding tax, while providing incentives for employment and wage increases.
Before joining the tax reform committee, Oyedele spent 22 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he served as fiscal policy partner and Africa tax leader.
He holds a Higher National Diploma in accountancy and finance from Yaba College of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in applied accounting from Oxford Brookes University.
He has also completed executive education programs at the London School of Economics, Yale University, the Gordon Institute of Business Science and the Harvard Kennedy School.
Oyedele also serves as a professor at Babcock University and a visiting scholar at the Lagos Business School.
He replaces Doris Uzoka-Anite, who has been redeployed as minister of state for budget and national planning.
During his Senate screening, Oyedele described his nomination as a call to serve at a critical moment for the country.
“With over two decades of experience working with national governments, multilateral institutions and global corporations, my journey across the private sector, academia and public policy has focused on fiscal governance and economic transformation,” he told lawmakers.
