The Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Zacch Adedeji, has defended the economic policies of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration, listing four major economic distortions inherited by the government. Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Adedeji identified these distortions as an unsustainable fuel subsidy, an opaque foreign exchange market, an underperforming oil sector, and a small tax base.

According to Adedeji, these inherited conditions directly contributed to a trade deficit, negative Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) inflows, and a ways and means debt that had grown to approximately N23 trillion. He explained that instead of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) bringing money to the federation, the government was actually owing the state oil firm due to unsustainable subsidies.

Adedeji warned that if President Tinubu had not initiated the economic reforms, Nigeria's fuel subsidy expenditure could have reached N53 trillion, driven by developments in Iran and the global economy. This figure aligns with his April 2026 projection where he suggested that fuel subsidies would have consumed N52 trillion, or 76% of the N68 trillion 2026 budget.

Furthermore, the NRS Chairman asserted that the naira could have weakened to around N3,500 to the dollar without the implementation of these reforms. He described the decision to remove the subsidy as patriotic, arguing that the government was previously borrowing money to purchase petrol at N10 and selling it to consumers at N3.

Adedeji insisted that Nigeria's fiscal balance sheet is now improving, which he believes will eventually translate into better living conditions for citizens. He added that creating a buffer before removing the subsidy would not have solved the underlying fiscal problem because the subsidy was already being financed through borrowed resources.