Nigeria’s 2025 Tax Act – Why Banks Are About to Get a Major Boost

By: Abudu Olalekan

The law sounds dry at first. Nigeria Tax Act 2025. Very technical. Very “for experts only.” But that’s not the full story. Hidden in the legal jargon are quiet chances for banks to reinvent how they do business. And how they help the economy breathe.

That was the point Professor Uche Uwaleke kept circling back to in Lagos. Slowly. Patiently. Almost like he was writing a new playbook in real time.

He spoke at the Access Bank Tax Forum, held on November 27. Not just as a guest, but as President of the Capital Market Academics of Nigeria. In his view, this new Act is not just another tweak to tax rules. It’s a reset button for how Nigeria raises money, enforces compliance and shapes investor behavior.

And banks? They sit right in the middle of it.

Uwaleke described banks as the “traffic controllers” of money. They see transactions, capital flows, cross‑border deals. They know where funds come from and where they go. Because of that, he argued, they are uniquely placed to help government implement the law while also building new products and growing fresh income streams.

Take the unified 4 per cent Development Levy on corporate assessable profits. On the surface, it’s one more bill on companies’ lists. One more line item for finance departments to worry about. More compliance stress, more paperwork.

But for banks, he said, this is also a door opening. With their digital infrastructure and large branch and agent networks, they can automate how businesses handle the levy – from calculation to collection to remittance. A company logs in. The system pulls the numbers. The bank’s platform does the rest. Less room for error. Less temptation to dodge payments. Less friction with tax authorities.

That’s not all. The Act has far more complex layers: Economic Development Incentive (EDI) claims, new capital allowance rules, an expanded Capital Gains Tax that now bites into indirect transfers and cross‑border deals. This is not something most firms can navigate with a quick Google search.

Here again, Uwaleke sees an opening. He said banks, especially those with regional footprints like Access Bank, can step in as guides. They can build tax‑aware advisory teams. Help clients reorganise their asset holdings. Restructure deals. Stay compliant but still protect value. This, in turn, becomes a new line of high‑value services – not just pushing loans, but selling expertise.

He pushed the story one step further. The EDI framework inside the Act offers incentives for qualifying capital expenditures in sectors Nigeria says it cares about: manufacturing, energy, technology, infrastructure. If banks design lending products that align directly with those incentives, everyone wins.

A manufacturer wants to expand its plant. A power company needs new equipment. A tech firm is investing in data centers. The bank finances the project in a way that qualifies under EDI. The borrower benefits from the tax incentive. The bank grows its loan book in productive sectors, not just quick‑turn consumption lending. The economy gets real assets, real jobs. That’s the theory.

Still, Uwaleke didn’t pretend that passing a law is enough. He stressed that genuine tax reform lives or dies on execution. Government has to be predictable, transparent, disciplined. No sudden U‑turns. No selective enforcement. The private sector – especially banks – must bring capital, data and practical know‑how.

“The banking system must enable transparency, compliance, investment, and growth,” he said. Simple sentence. Heavy load.

For him, Nigeria Tax Act 2025 is “pro‑growth, pro‑investment, and pro‑sustainability.” A big claim. But he grounded it in three big shifts the law could drive if done right: smarter revenue mobilisation (more from the formal economy, less from random squeezes), wider formalisation of businesses, and stronger institutions that actually know what is going on in their tax base.

He also had a word for his hosts. Uwaleke praised Access Bank for bringing regulators, experts and clients into the same room. Not on a panel to tick boxes, but to argue, question and unpack the dense pages of the Act. He urged the bank to keep the Tax Forum alive every year, turning it into a kind of laboratory where policy meets practice.

Because, at the end of the day, laws don’t implement themselves. People do. Institutions do. Banks do.