BY EDMOND ODOK – President Bola Tinubu has sworn Taiwo Oyedele in as the new Minister of State for Finance.
The oath of office ceremony took place briefly at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday.
Before the event, Oyedele and his wife were seen undergoing security clearance at the Presidential Villa around 2:09 pm. He was dressed in a navy blue suit while his wife wore a white traditional attire.
Oyedele was nominated as Minister of State for Finance by the President on March 3, 2026, to replace Doris Uzoka-Anite, who has been moved to Budget and National Planning as the new Minister of State.
His swearing-in is coming eight days after the Senate confirmed him as a Minister-designate under the administration of President Bola Tinubu after being cleared through a voice vote at the Committee of the whole following hours of screening by the lawmakers on Wednesday, March 11, 2026.
Describing his Ministerial nomination as a call to serve Nigeria during the screening, the immediate past Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms had said, “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.
“However, this moment is not about personal accomplishments; it is a call to serve at a critical time when Nigeria faces significant fiscal challenges and remarkable opportunities.”
Noting that his decades-long experience working on “global reforms regarding the ease of doing business and taxation across 180 countries” had prepared him for the role, the 50-year-old told the Senators: “I feel my background has prepared me to help my country by understanding what works globally and how to apply those lessons to our unique context”.
Recalled that President Tinubu appointed the public policy expert, accountant, and economist to chair the tax reform committee in July 2023, leading to the creation of four bills for the government.
These are the Nigeria Tax Bill; the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill; the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill; and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill which were eventually passed by the National Assembly last year following months of extensive debates and controversies.
The bills finally received presidential assents on June 26, 2025 and eventually came into effect on January 1, 2026.
After bagging a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accountancy and Finance at the Yaba College of Technology, Oyedele further earned a BSc in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University.
His academic journey saw him studying at the London School of Economics, Yale University, the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and the Harvard Kennedy School, where he completed executive education programmes.
Oyedele, who worked for decades with PWC, having started his career at the organisation in 2001, is a professor at Babcock University in Ogun State
The former fiscal policy partner and Africa tax leader at Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) is also a visiting scholar at the prestigious Lagos Business School.
