Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Zacch Adedeji, has defended the economic reforms of the President Bola Tinubu administration, saying more Nigerians would have slipped into poverty if the government had failed to implement them.

Adedeji made the assertion during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Sunday, stressing that the reforms should be assessed against the economic conditions inherited by the Tinubu administration.

He argued that the progress recorded so far should be measured by what could have happened had the government failed to address the underlying economic challenges.

“If we’ve not done what we are supposed to do, possibly double of that population will have gone to poverty, and I’m telling you that progress is what we should measure,” he said.

The NRS chairman said state governments were becoming less dependent on federal allocations to meet salary obligations, while more Nigerians, including civil servants, were gaining access to credit.

He also highlighted the student loan programme as an example of the reforms’ impact, saying more than one million students across 300 higher institutions had received over ₦303 billion in disbursements within the past three years.

“Before now, nobody talks about student loan. Based on the last check, more than one million students in 300 higher institutions have been disbursed more than N303 billion to them in the last three years. This has never been in existence,” Adedeji said.

On the foreign exchange market, he said the unification of exchange rates had eliminated distortions that previously discouraged investors from bringing capital into Nigeria.

He recalled that the wide gap between official and parallel market rates created uncertainty for investors and contributed to weak capital inflows.

“When you have exchange rate at N463 and the official rate is roughly at N1,200, you have zero capital importation,” he said.

According to him, the subsequent reforms have created a more predictable environment for businesses, with improved company performance reflecting the changing economic conditions.

Adedeji also defended the removal of the petrol subsidy, saying it was necessary to create an environment where domestic refineries could operate profitably.

He claimed that Nigeria’s refining capacity had risen from about 30,000 barrels per day before the Tinubu administration to approximately 700,000 barrels per day.

“If Mr. President had not removed subsidy, there is no way [the] refinery will work,” he said.

The NRS chairman added that increased domestic refining capacity had helped Nigeria reduce its exposure to disruptions in the international oil market.

He urged Nigerians to support Tinubu’s reform agenda, describing the President’s decisions as courageous and arguing that he had acted as a statesman rather than merely as a politician.