Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Dr Zacch Adedeji, on Monday, challenged global leaders to tackle the rising cross-border crimes that have disrupted revenue mobilisation and economic growth.
Adedeji threw the challenge while delivering a keynote address at the 42nd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crimes (CIDOEC) held at the University of Cambridge, UK.
The symposium has, for over four decades, been a crucible of ideas, a forge for strategies, and a platform where countries chart a collective course against the impact and threat economic crimes pose to countries and institutions.
The global meeting was attended by approximately 1,000 participants from over 100 countries, including legislators, policymakers, law enforcement agencies, security and intelligence personnel, regulators, governance and compliance officers, and academics.
According to a statement, Adedeji was represented by the Coordinating Director of Proceeds of Crime Management and Illicit Financial Flows, as well as the former chair of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof Bolaji Owasanoye.
The FIRS chairman stated that cross-border tax crimes have undermined efforts of countries to raise revenue for development. He added that cross-border tax crimes distort fair competition because compliant companies pay a higher cost for business and appear less profitable.
“This year’s theme, ‘Cross-Border Crimes’, speaks directly to one of the most complex and corrosive challenges of our interconnected world.
“In a global economy where capital can move faster than law enforcement, and where digital and legal arbitrage often outpace regulation, the fight against cross-border economic crime is, by necessity, both local and global, both urgent and pressing.
“Modern-day cross-border crimes remind us that borders and boundaries have become virtual and distance irrelevant to the perpetration of crime and the negative impact on victims,” said Adedeji, who is also the Special Adviser on Revenue to President Bola Tinubu.
On corporate or natural citizens who evade, avoid, or fraudulently manipulate tax obligations by exploiting the intricacies of international trade or finance, the FIRS boss stated that they have become implicated in cross-border crimes.
He said, “When corporate or natural persons earn income in one country but hide the same in another country, when they deceive, conceal or falsify records, they undermine the integrity and fiscal aspirations of the two countries they are manipulating.
“When they hide income and assets in secrecy in some jurisdictions to avoid home-country taxes, they are hurting the fiscal target of the home country. When companies engage in abusive transfer pricing and manipulate intra-group transactions between subsidiaries in different countries to shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions, they are engaged in cross-border tax crimes.”
Speaking about the reforms undertaken by the current administration, Adedeji said they were necessary to build a vibrant and prosperous economy.
Tinubu, according to him, inherited not just fiscal challenges but a system under siege by economic crimes such as abuse of fuel subsidy regime, exploitation of foreign exchange rate differentials between official and parallel markets, illicit financial flows (IFFs), base erosion and profit shifting by multinationals, and complex trade-based money laundering schemes, amongst other cross-border crimes.
He said that Nigeria embraced a bold and unambiguous mission under the current administration’s reform programme, tagged ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’, to safeguard Nigeria’s fiscal sovereignty, expand domestic resource mobilisation, prevent financial haemorrhage, close the channels bleeding the economy, and recover diverted economic assets for the use of the common people.
“Fiscal reforms were a major part of this vision; thus, on June 26, 2025, the president assented to four landmark tax reform bills, a clear signal that our reform agenda is not aspirational but actionable.
“These reforms modernise our tax laws, enhance transparency, strengthen enforcement, and align Nigeria with global best practices. The new fiscal regime heralds over 400 specific changes to Nigeria’s tax laws and administration,” he affirmed.
He told the gathering that the FIRS, which would soon become the Nigeria Revenue Service effective January 2026, had redefined its mandate and is now a fiscal crime prevention and intelligence gathering and sharing organisation, central to Nigeria’s national security, economic stability and social development.
He further stated that the foremost tax organisation had launched a technological transformation programme, which includes tax data automation, e-invoicing, real-time analytics, AI-driven anomaly detection, and integrated third-party data matching.
“These tools ensure that compliance is simplified for taxpayers while evasion becomes more difficult for offenders. FIRS is also investing in a National Tax Data Warehouse that consolidates information from payment gateways, banks, customs, and other agencies.
“By applying big data analytics and machine learning, we can now forecast revenues, spot risks, and detect tax evasion patterns before they take root. This makes our tax administration predictive rather than reactive,” Adedeji emphasised.
