Nigeria’s tax revenue collection fell short of its first-quarter budget target by N2.24tn in 2026 amid the rollout of sweeping tax reforms and the transition from the Federal Inland Revenue Service to the Nigeria Revenue Service under the new tax laws.
Documents presented by the NRS at the Federation Account Allocation Committee meetings and obtained by The PUNCH on Tuesday showed that the agency generated a cumulative gross revenue of N7.44tn between January and March 2026, against a projected target of N9.68tn, representing a shortfall of N2.24tn and an overall performance rate of 76.87 per cent.
The figures come months after the implementation of the new tax regime that took effect on January 1, 2026, which formally transformed the FIRS into the Nigeria Revenue Service. The latest performance marked a weaker outing compared to the corresponding period of 2025, when the then-FIRS exceeded its first-quarter target.
FAAC documents from April 2025 showed that the FIRS generated N6.04tn in cumulative revenue between January and March 2025, surpassing its target of N5.82tn by N218.02bn and posting a performance rate of 103.74 per cent.
This indicates that while total tax revenue rose year-on-year by N1.40tn or 23.16 per cent from N6.04tn in the first quarter of 2025 to N7.44tn in the same period of 2026, the growth was still insufficient to meet the significantly higher revenue expectations embedded in the 2026 fiscal framework.
