Jabar Ayodele

An Administrator, political analyst, historian, Educationist, A chartered Accountant

[Wellahealth @WellaHealth]

The smartest engineering teams know what to build and what to integrate.

Building healthcare infrastructure from scratch can slow your roadmap and pull valuable resources away from what truly differentiates your product.

[Daddy D.O🇳🇬 @DOlusegun]

The kidnapped pupils and teachers in Orire, Oyo have been rescued by Security Forces

[Oladele. A 🇳🇬 🇬🇧 @dele003]

@NigeriaStories @Atobatele_1 😩😩

[Rufybaba @Rufyb]

Late yesterday, the S&P Global Ratings announced what some folks had anticipated. Nigeria’s credit rating was upgraded by one notch to B (five levels below investment grade), the first upgrade since 2012. According to S&P, the considerations for the credit rating upgrade were:

✑ Higher oil prices
✑ Improved capacity to refine and export crude
✑ The decision to liberalise the exchange rate

This is a big win.

I have seen, in some places, the frustration over the gap between macro wins and micro pains. The honest answer is that the average Nigerian on the roadside cannot connect this progress to their well-being today. They will only feel it through a longer transmission chain that has not yet finished playing out.

A credit upgrade essentially signals to the global market that Nigeria is a less risky borrower, allowing the federal government and major Nigerian corporates to borrow at cheaper rates abroad. The bread-seller in Mushin does not borrow from JP Morgan or from the international debt market, so the immediate effect on her bottom line is zero.

Where it eventually shows up for her is in three indirect channels:

✑ First, cheaper sovereign borrowing means the FG can enter the international debt market and borrow at a lower rate to refinance some of its costly debt. This will result in lower debt service spend and, in theory, provide more fiscal room for roads, power, security, etc.

✑ Second, lower country-risk attracts FDI and portfolio inflows, which strengthens the Naira (we might see an extended stability in the FX market. Naira is still likely to remain a darling). The imported inflation will also slow, and this is the channel where the Mushin trader would feel it the fastest.

✑ Coys can refinance their debt or raise capital for expansion. A business expansion opens the door to hiring, which means higher income in the economy.

However, all of these still depend entirely on whether the reforms continue and whether the fiscal headroom is actually deployed productively rather than consumed (I've been hearing news of how APC Governors have been cornering funds for the Presidential campaign. Toor).

By the way, my family members and I in the equities market will smile at this development.

[Taiwo Oyedele @taiwoyedele]

𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦

I formally assumed office yesterday as the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, following a handover from my predecessor, Mr. Wale Edun. I sincerely appreciate him for his service to our country and the foundation he has laid.

Nigeria is at a critical juncture. Having taken important steps to stabilise the economy, our immediate task is to consolidate these gains, deepen ongoing reforms, and ensure they translate into tangible benefits for all Nigerians.

Our strategic priorities include:

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲 & 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 - creating a predictable and investor-friendly environment anchored on policy coherence, consistency, and clarity.

𝐅𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 & 𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 - ensuring transparent and prudent management of public resources.

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐓𝐚𝐱𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 - harmonising revenue administration, broadening the tax base, reducing the burden on vulnerable population, and supporting economic growth.

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 - aligning efforts across all tiers and institutions to maximise policy impact.

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 (𝐏𝐏𝐏𝐏) - deepening collaboration with the private sector and other key stakeholders for data-driven policy design, co-implementation, and feedback for continuous improvement.

Good policy design alone is not enough, success will be defined by execution. We are committed to disciplined implementation, accountability, and measurable results.

I look forward to working with colleagues across government, the private sector, and all Nigerians as we move from reform to result, accelerate growth and build a more stable, inclusive, and prosperous economy.

[Jabar Ayodele @Baraj92]

@GloriousGod01 You no ready rent house, before the verification, another person don pay for the house in Lagos

[OPEOLUWA 😎😎 @OpeBee]

When people talk about improving electricity and they are asking for more generation of electricity, it shows a lack of understanding of our situation.

Nigeria has an installed electricity generation capacity of 14,000MW. However peak generation/ transmission ever in the country is around 5,800MW.

Biggest constraint is GAS.

Biggest constraint to gas is pricing and infrastructure.

For example, Escravos gas assets owned by Chevron that should optimally produce > 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas daily is doing less than 700 million cubic feet of gas daily due to years of underinvestments.

Even if we get enough gas today , we simply can’t effectively transmit our installed generation capacity due lack of infrastructure. Case in point, we aren’t transmitting all of the power generation from Zungeru power plant and if Mambilla becomes operational we will still need an entirely new transmission line to evacuate power.

Even if we could evacuate all the electricity generated, we can’t distribute all effectively due to underinvestment in the distribution network. We also can’t guarantee optimal billing and revenue collection due to metering gap.

The problem is hydra headed but we still haven’t figured out a policy that allows all the segments of the electricity chain act in sync towards the same goal.

Government( FG and states) is also yet to own the problem. If electricity is essential then government must lead from the front. Expecting private players to swam in at this point is living in a fool’s paradise.

If there is a policy that can cause the cascade of reaction needed to bring investment, it’s liberalizing price and metering.

In the meantime time, the government must liberalize price, commit to fully enforcing huge penalty on gas flaring, close the meter gap, ensure recapitalization of generation and distribution companies, divest from Niger delta power holding company while listing its shares in the capital market build new transmission corridors around mapped out industrial areas ( present or future).

[Akin Olaoye @akintollgate]

If a politician walks easily from a party platform that gave him a VP slot & one that later gave him more than 6.5m votes in a general election where he didn’t build, he will walk away from anything else! Carpeting from party to party is not a style of politics I admire!
Sad to see young Nigerians are being groomed to become party hoppers, every 4 years. Please don’t come here and blame the APC!
Hard Talk

[Jabar Ayodele @Baraj92]

@eludayo_1 Single life no easy

[Nojeem ‘Nudge’ Yusuf @NudgeTM]

Only 9 companies control around 20% of the global stock market, which is worth more than $100trillion. 8 of them are in the US, and 1 in Taiwan; all are tech companies.

Africa’s share is only 0.4%, which is dominated by South Africa.

[Oreoluwa Bukola, CFA. @BukkyOA]

A Hong Kong Billionaire said he paid $4.5m to have one meeting with Warren Buffett, and one of the most outstanding lessons he took from the meeting is: ‘Be careful who you marry.’

The kind of things I have seen and heard coaching professionals in the last couple of years. If I say a tenth of it, you would open your mouth and find it hard to close.

Be careful who you marry!

[Jabar Ayodele @Baraj92]

@Iwelabi1 I am fully aware of that, That some contract could be implied based on the nature of the transaction. The tax Authority are simple concerned about your income and not if the revenue meet IFRS 15 Revenue recognition

[Babatunde Akin-Moses @AkinMoses1]

My Personality of 2025: Taiwo Oyedele

In 2023, while writing Economics with Uncle Tunde, I was deciding who to ask for book reviews. I needed people who truly understood fiscal and monetary policy.

Taiwo came to mind. Former boss. Tax expert. Author. Already leading the Fiscal Policy Reform Committee at the time.

I hesitated because of how busy he was, but I sent the manuscript anyway. By the next day, he had responded. Not just with a review, but with detailed corrections and suggestions to make the book better. He was the first to respond.

That reminded me that excellence is never accidental.

The same traits show up clearly in his work on tax reform today. Calm. Patient. Thorough. Focused on education over noise. Despite provocation, he remains measured and objective.

I cannot recall a policy reform in Nigeria that came with this level of public explanation and engagement. That did not happen by chance.

Nigeria last attempted to consolidate laws at this scale with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), and that took nearly 20 years. This effort has taken about three.

Reforms of this scale are never painless, but history will judge this effort more kindly than the present noise suggests.

For his professionalism, discipline, and quiet excellence under pressure, Taiwo Oyedele is my Personality of 2025.

[HRH banke oniru @HRH_bankeoniru]

I failed my first driving test in the United States, I was supposed to be doing 30, I was doing 34.

That tiny 4 mph difference was the difference between “Congratulations” and “Try again.”
Second attempt, I finally, passed!

Before they handed me the license, I was told to watch a Mandatory video. No skipping. No fast-forward.

Gosh! that video broke something open inside me.

It wasn’t the usual “don’t drink and drive” PSA. It was raw. Real stories.
Mothers who never got to hug their kids again, teens who went from laughing in the backseat to never speaking again.
People who survived… but wish they hadn’t. Faces frozen in grief. Voices cracking.

By the end, I wasn’t just watching anymore, I was feeling it.
That video wasn’t punishment.
It was mercy.

It was someone caring enough to say:
“Before we trust you with 2 tons of metal, we need you to understand what it can take away in one careless second.

Now, every time I slide behind the wheel, I hear those voices.
I see those faces. I feel that weight.

life doesn’t come with a second attempt, and some mistakes… you don’t get to retake.

Drive like the people you love are in the other car, because one day, they might be.

[Taiwo Oyedele @taiwoyedele]

𝐈𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐌 𝐁𝐘 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄

I usually ignore name calling because it is not worthy of attention that could otherwise be deployed productively. However, I am responding to this as a matter of public interest and hopefully to help other media organisations with similar tendencies.

Peoples Gazette published a malicious article claiming that I lied about certain provisions of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act. The accusation is false, reckless, and not supported by anything I said during the referenced TV interview.

It started with a WhatsApp message which I received from Peoples Gazette. Rather than wait for my response, they rushed to publish their accusation just after their first message below.

𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞: Good afternoon, Mr Ayodele. We followed your interview on Arise TV yesterday but found that you goofed and misrepresented the facts in the tax law. Contrary to your claims, Section 61 of the new law empowers the FIRS to seize Nigerians' money, properties without court order, for not paying taxes.

𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐰𝐨 𝐎𝐲𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞: I will ignore your rude language since you obviously didn't understand my simple explanation. Send a screen recording of where I said what you claim. And my name is Oyedele, not Ayodele.

𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞: I know that your name is “Oyedele,” that was probably a typographical error. However, I wasn’t being rude to you, Mr Ayodele. During your December 24th interview on Arise TV, you claimed that the tax man (FIRS) cannot just seize people’s assets or money. This claim is contrary to the provisions in Sections 61 and 43 of the tax law. Here’s a clip from your interview: https://t.co/wH3LnqEufg

𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐰𝐨 𝐎𝐲𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞: You can check the meaning of goof if that helps. If you're truly a professional journalist you won't jump into conclusion without due diligence. All you needed to do was watch about 2 minutes in the interview before the clip you shared, from the point the question was asked.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭

My explanation clearly stated that enforcement actions do not arise in a vacuum. There is a process under the existing law which hasn’t changed – a taxpayer is entitled to self assessment, while the tax authority may issue an additional assessment to which the taxpayer has the right of objection, until the tax becomes final and conclusive under an appeal framework that involves the courts, up to the Supreme Court where applicable.

Peoples Gazette’s allegation relies on a short excerpt taken mid-response, stripped of the question and the explanation that immediately preceded it. Here is the full interview: https://t.co/Ud4shH8QN5

Responsible journalism requires due diligence, full context, and professionalism especially on a matter that is capable of misleading the public. Even if I said what they claimed, someone acting in good faith could have said “wrong” instead of “lied” but it was obviously intentional to gain the attention of their unsuspecting followers and get the clicks.

Falsehood may travel fast but only the truth can go far.

[Neto @docneto]

Permit me to quote 🙏

I returned 10 years ago and now employ 90 people. Nothing I could have done in the west can hold a candle to the impact I've had in my 10 years building a business in Nigeria.

If those of us that can afford to go abroad for an MBA are being discouraged from returning to start businesses, who should then be starting businesses? Who will create the prosperity to lift our nation from the doldrums of poverty. Did entrepreneurs in the early years of rich countries have it easy?

Please if you're abroad and passionate about building business in Nigeria (and can afford to take the risk), don't listen to oyibos, return and start that business. Our country desperately needs you and you will find no better calling.

[Jabar Ayodele @Baraj92]

@omoalhajaabiola The problem is the average Nigeria, If nobody enter this buses. The price will automatically drop.

The drivers are acting on top demand and supply

[Neto @docneto]

In 2022 we received a $150,000 grant to figure out how to sell insurance to Nigerians in the formal sector. For the first time, we are publicly sharing five lessons that we learnt from that process. Head over to the link in my bio to read it.

[HalālPair @halal_pair]

Your spouse is going to let you down sometimes, and you're going to let them down sometimes.
A "perfect" marriage doesn't require perfect people, because Allah is the only One who is perfect.
Be patient with each other and let grace flow freely in your relationship.
Don't give up on each other!