Nigeria generated a total of N161.1 trillion in revenue over the 15 years from 2010 to 2024, with a landmark shift now confirmed that tax income has overtaken oil as the country’s primary revenue source, according to a new research report.
According to ThisDayLive, the figures, contained in a report titled Nigeria Unshackled: Inside the Steady Rise of a Fiscal State and released by Nigerian research firm Quartus Economics, show that of the N161.1 trillion earned between 2010 and 2024, approximately N80.6 trillion or 49.99 percent came from oil related sources, while N80.57 trillion, or 50.01 percent, came from non-oil sources.
The report describes the development as a decisive break from decades of dependence on crude oil, noting that while oil revenue accounted for roughly three quarters of federation revenues in the pre-crisis years of 2010 to 2013, it now accounts for just about a quarter of total federation revenues.
Tax revenue, which accounted for less than half of revenues in 2014, contributed as much as 87 percent of total federation revenues by 2024, with non oil taxes forming the bulk of that increase. The contribution of oil to total federally collected revenues has fallen from 73.9 percent in 2010 to 25.8 percent in 2024, while non-oil revenue grew from 25 percent to nearly 75 percent over the same period.
The Cable also reported how the pace of the transformation has been especially striking in recent years. Between 2023 and 2025, Nigeria generated N62.3 trillion in taxes, with the non-oil sector contributing over 73 percent of revenue mobilisation. Within three years, Nigeria’s tax revenue nearly tripled, rising from N10.18 trillion in 2022 to N28.29 trillion in 2025. In 2025 alone, tax collection grew by 30 percent, driven primarily by non-oil taxes which accounted for nearly 84 percent of growth.
The report linked the improvement to several factors, including the increase in Value Added Tax from five percent to 7.5 percent, better enforcement, and wider economic activity outside the oil sector.
However, the report tempers the optimism with a stark debt warning. Public debt stock is now more than 14 times its 2015 level, while domestic debt is more than eight times and external debt more than five times their 2014 levels. Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio rose to nearly 31 percent in 2023, while debt service-to-revenue climbed to about 40 percent, reflecting growing pressure on public finances.
The report also identified fuel subsidies as a major drain on public finances, noting that Nigeria spent about N23.75 trillion on petrol subsidies over 15 years with N7.1 trillion spent in 2024 alone describing the cost as unsustainable before its removal.
