FIRS expresses readiness to partner varsities nationwide

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has expressed readiness to partner with universities and other tertiary institutions to become centres of innovation and providers of solutions to global challenges.

FIRS Chairman, Dr Zacch Adedeji, made this known while delivering the 2025 Distinguished Lecture titled “Economic Resilience in an Era of Dwindling Revenue” at the University of Ilesa, Osun State.

In his lecture, Adedeji explained how the country is building a resilient economy under the Renewed Hope Agenda. He highlighted reforms and initiatives introduced under his leadership at FIRS, including automation and digitisation, strategic reforms aimed at expanding and modernising the tax base, collaboration with states on tax harmonisation, and institutional repositioning to earn public trust.

The FIRS boss said it was important to restructure the productive base of the economy away from crude oil and embrace multiple engines of growth such as agro-processing, the digital economy, the creative industry and solid minerals.

He, however, stressed that building economic resilience is not the responsibility of government alone. He urged academics and other stakeholders to contribute by producing research that offers practical solutions to contemporary challenges. Adedeji said FIRS is ready to embrace partnerships that support academic efforts aimed at bridging the town-gown gap.

He listed possible partnership areas, including joint research projects on domestic revenue mobilisation, tax equity and digitisation, as well as the development of tax policy innovation hubs where academics and practitioners can co-create policy prototypes and test scalable ideas.

Charging students to aim high, he said: “…in building a resilient Nigeria, we need minds that can think critically, hands that can build institutionally, and hearts that serve patriotically.”

Adedeji also used the occasion to pay tribute to the University’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Taiwo Asaolu, who taught him at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He recalled how the then Dr Asaolu paid for his final stage examinations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) while he was in his second year as an undergraduate.

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He narrated how he had resigned himself to fate due to lack of funds, but Asaolu, noticing he was not preparing for the examination, asked why. Upon hearing his challenge, Asaolu reprimanded him for keeping silent and immediately took him to his office, where he issued a personal cheque covering the full amount.

“I sat for the examinations and passed. That was how I became a chartered accountant in my Part 2 as an undergraduate,” Adedeji said to thunderous applause from an audience of government representatives, lecturers, students and guests.

Recalling another incident, Adedeji narrated how he was once accused of cheating during his ICAN final examination—an offence punishable by a six-year ban. He said Prof. Asaolu defended him fiercely, staking his own ICAN certificate by insisting that Adedeji could not have cheated given his academic capacity.

To prove his point, Asaolu gave the supervisor two options: compare Adedeji’s answers with the materials found under his desk to determine if they matched, or give Adedeji a fresh answer sheet with instructions not to attempt any of the questions he had originally answered. Asaolu told the supervisor to seize his ICAN certific