FirstBank Partners Ekiti State Government on Launch of Innovation Enterprise Support Fund

Lagos, 10 April 2025 – FirstBank, West Africa’s premier financial institution and the leading financial inclusion service provider, is proud to announce its partnership with the Ekiti State Government in launching the Innovation Enterprise Support Fund, a groundbreaking initiative designed to empower startups, scale tech-enabled businesses, and accelerate innovation-driven economic growth across the state.

The programme provides funding, mentorship, and market access to high-potential enterprises, with a focus on strengthening Ekiti’s innovation ecosystem, creating jobs, and supporting youth, women, and underserved communities. Notably, at least 40 percent of the fund has been reserved for female-led enterprises.

The Innovation Enterprise Support Fund Initiative is structured as a three-phase programme covering ideation, pre-acceleration, and acceleration for about 60 startups. Each enterprise will receive financial support ranging from ₦150,000 to ₦1,200,000, enabling job creation, revenue generation, and market-ready product launches.

Speaking on the partnership, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, FirstBank Group, Olusegun Alebiosu, said “Entrepreneurship and Innovation are two of our core values at FirstBank. We believe MSMEs are enablers of economic growth and for 132 years, we have stood beside Nigerian businesses through every phase of growth, transition and transformation. We have remained committed to building stronger business through improved access to finance and capacity building; we created the SME Connect Platform to serve as a digital hub where Nigerian entrepreneurs find the resources to move from vision to value. We are excited about this partnership, and we see more than startups. We see future industry leaders, employers of labour, and perhaps our next big partners.”

The partnership aligns with FirstBank’s longstanding commitment to financial inclusion, SME development, and youth empowerment, with an emphasis on supporting women entrepreneurs, who represent 35% of Nigeria’s startup cohort.

FirstBank has been a consistent promoter and supporter of the innovation ecosystem and SMEs in Nigeria, providing notable interventions to help them scale their platforms and businesses. The Bank has designed multiple digital platforms for its SME customers to leverage on for business growth and expansion.

Zacch Adedeji: The Reformist Redefining Nigeria’s Revenue Future Through Action

By: Bashorun Oladapo Sofowora 

To dazzle in the Nigerian public service sector, you need more than just doing the extraordinary, you must do what no one has ever done. For Dr. Zacch Adelabu Adedeji, the Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), possessing the heart of Hercules, the fearlessness of Achilles, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of Macaulay, and the hide of a rhinoceros is what made him stand out to become the poster boy of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration. Give it to him: highly witty, cerebral, and dutiful. Zacch didn’t earn his current position by fluke; he attained his height with sheer dint of hard work, resilience, self-belief, foresight, and a can-do spirit.

Today, the NRS has been given a new face, the era has changed and the narrative has been rewritten. All thanks to the Oyo State-born outstanding technocrat. Since he assumed office as Executive Chairman, one thing has remained constant; his drive for innovative change and his commitment to ensuring taxpayers are seen as partners in progress rather than foes. Adedeji understands that taxpayers must be treated with dignity and must be made to understand their role as stakeholders, partners in progress and development. This special preference has ensured that tax collection is more simplified, more robust, and more engaging.

When Adedeji assumed the chairmanship of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in September 2023, the agency was less a revenue service and more a leaky sieve. The nation’s tax-to-GDP ratio was an embarrassment, public trust was a phantom, and the treasury gasped for air. But Adedeji, a resounding technocrat with the soul of a warrior looked upon this chaos and saw a canvas. His creed was immediate and uncompromising; more than just words, but action. Within twenty-four months, he has not merely reformed an institution; he has incinerated the old order and birthed a leviathan; the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS). This is the story of a man who taught a nation how to pay its way into sheer prosperity.

Adedeji is armed with the philosophy that taxing the fruit, not the seed, is the way to grow as a nation. When he assumed his current role, he rejected the notion that increasing revenue required burdening struggling businesses. Instead, he focused on plugging leakages and widening the net to ensure all taxable citizens perform their civic obligations for the development of the country. With this philosophy, the results were almost immediate and stunning. In 2023, despite assuming office mid-year, the FIRS collected ₦12.36 trillion, surpassing its target of ₦11.55 trillion. That was just the warm-up act. In 2024, the agency delivered a monumental ₦21.7 trillion a 76% jump against a target of ₦19.7 trillion. Between September 2023 and August 2025, the Service realized a cumulative ₦46 trillion in total tax revenue, representing 115% of combined targets. These were not accidents of the economy; they were the direct results of strategic action carefully played and curated by the Tax Man himself.

Zacch’s exceptional ability to steer Nigeria’s fiscal ship towards stability is akin to a skilful sailor navigating treacherous murky waters, with demonstrable efficiency, culminated in Nigeria reaching a historic milestone of ₦28.2 trillion in revenue in 2025. As the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS) sets its sights on 2026 with an ambitious goal of ₦40.7 trillion, the role of technological innovation becomes increasingly vital. Adedeji recognized that overcoming the entrenched “tin bucket” mentality, an overreliance on manual collection methods required deploying advanced, reliable digital tools that minimized human contact, thereby reducing opportunities for corruption and errors. He led the successful automation of over 80% of manual processes through the implementation of the TaxPro-Max platform, which streamlined taxpayer registration, documentation, and filing procedures, significantly reducing processing times. The rollout of the e-invoicing system mandated that corporations with turnovers exceeding ₦5 billion digitize all transactions, thereby eliminating VAT evasion at the source and fostering transparency. Within weeks of deployment, major corporations such as MTN Nigeria, Huawei Technologies Nigeria, and IHS Nigeria had onboarded the system, signaling broad industry acceptance. A notable innovation was the nationwide launch of the USSD code *829#, a groundbreaking service allowing citizens to access tax-related information, file returns, and make payments directly via mobile phones without internet connectivity effectively democratizing tax compliance across all socio-economic strata. These initiatives transformed the Nigeria Revenue Service from a traditionally intimidating enforcement agency into a modern, efficient service platform that emulates leading 21st-century tax collection models.

Building on this foundation, the NRS introduced the Rev360 platform an advanced, integrated, and intelligent ecosystem representing the next phase in the evolution of tax administration. Rev360 embodies the principles of Tax Administration 3.0, characterized by comprehensive automation, real-time analytics, and seamless integration of tax processes within taxpayers’ everyday systems. This strategic shift promises faster processing times, enhanced decision-making capabilities, improved compliance rates, and an overall improved user experience. Taxpayers will benefit from a broader array of interaction options, including digital channels, mobile apps, and self-service portals. The launch of Rev360 aligns with the broader digital transformation strategy under the leadership of Zacch Adedeji PhD, the Executive Chairman of the NRS, whose visionary approach continues to propel innovations in service delivery and institutional strengthening. The platform’s deployment reflects the Service’s unwavering commitment to enhancing institutional capacity, fostering greater taxpayer confidence, and aligning with international best practices and technological standards. Following a successful pilot phase, the phased rollout of Rev360 will begin with Medium and Emerging Taxpayers, representing the first stage of comprehensive nationwide adoption aimed at creating a resilient, transparent and efficient tax system for Nigeria.

To ensure action is taken not by mere words alone, Dr. Adedeji knew that lasting change and stability required a new legal framework and laws guiding tax compliance in the country. This enabled him to lead the charge to dismantle the archaic, colonial-era tax laws that had stifled growth by taxing the poor rather than taxing prosperity. This led to the legislative transformation of laws signed into force in 2025 and effective from the 1st of January 2026: the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 (NTA), the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 (NTAA), the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act 2025 (JRBA), and the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act 2025 (NRSA). These laws harmonized over 60 disparate tax statutes into a single framework to ensure adherence and unification. To prevent controversies and wrong narratives from being peddled by naysayers, Adedeji assured Nigerians that the laws are pro-poor, exempting those earning ₦800,000 or less annually from Personal Income Tax and removing VAT on essential items to protect the most vulnerable.

In a bid to show his wizardry beyond being a brilliant chap, Adedeji led one of the most impressive transition and rebranding processes in the country. He executed the transition from FIRS to NRS with distinct surgical precision, ensuring that operational guidelines were ready and that staff were trained for the new mandate. The transition was so seamless that almost all Nigerians pivoted to the change without struggling. Same brand core values, different name, and a more formidable identity. The rebranding was more than a name change; it represented a paradigm shift from a “Federal” collector to a unified “National” revenue hub, aiming to harmonize collections across all tiers of government to ensure effectiveness, bring relief from multiple taxation, and allow government agencies to focus on their core mandates while leaving revenue collection to the NRS.

Zacch obviously detests wastage; seeing wastage bores him. That is why he reignited the abandoned NRS building, breathing fresh life into it after 30 months in charge. The recently commissioned NRS Headquarters will ensure a lasting legacy, also corroborating the transition from FIRS to NRS. The new edifice is beyond magnificent. The 16-floor, tastefully built structure can pass as the ninth wonder of the world. As a man of style and taste, Zacch ensured the environment was inviting for everyone who comes in for any tax-related transaction. The three-tower complex is a world-class edifice designed to house 3,000 staff, complete with a data processing center, a clinic, an auditorium, and a gym. It is indeed a jaw-dropping building equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to ensure seamless navigation and maximum output.

At the opening ceremony on the 14th of April, Adedeji paid tribute to President Tinubu, declaring him “the greatest gift bestowed on this republic.” He noted that the headquarters symbolizes that reform is “not abstract, but real; not theoretical, but implemented.” The auspicious event was attended by the Senate President, the Speaker of the House, and numerous governors, signaling rare political consensus on the importance of revenue reform. For the building commissioning, Zacch can be called a jinx breaker and a record setter. Calling him both places him on a pedestal of immortality.

Zacch Adelabu Adedeji has answered the question posed by his own mantra: “More than just words, but action.” He has taken a bureaucracy often viewed with suspicion and turned it into the vanguard of economic renewal. From the digits of ₦46 trillion in revenue to the concrete of a 16-story headquarters, from the virtual code *829# to the legal text of the NRS Act, Adedeji has left no room for doubt. Indeed, he has outdone himself, leaving a lacuna that anyone after him might struggle to fill.

He did not merely build an institution that demands taxes; he built one that enables prosperity. As Nigeria marches toward a future of fiscal self-sufficiency, it does so on the solid foundation of actions taken by a quiet, determined reformer who proved that in governance, what you do will always speak louder than what you say. As the sun sets, and birds chirping over the new NRS headquarters, casting long shadows across the skylines of Abuja, one fact remains indisputable: in the battle for Nigeria’s economic soul, words have failed, long speeches have faded into oblivion, but Zacch Adelabu Adedeji brought action infused with a monument. The era of talk is over, the era of the Alchemist has just begun.