The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Dr Zacch Adedeji, has offered to partner with Nigerian tertiary institutions to enable them to become incubators of innovation, providing solutions to real-world problems.

Adedeji made the offer while delivering the 2025 Distinguished Lecture of the University of Ilesa, Osun State.

Speaking on the topic ‘Economic Resilience in an Era of Dwindling Revenue’, the FIRS boss analysed Nigeria’s current financial situation and offered practical solutions, explaining how the country is building a resilient economy under the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Bola Tinubu administration.

He highlighted the reforms and initiatives undertaken by the tax agency under his leadership, including automation and digitisation; strategic reforms leading to expansion and modernisation of the tax base; collaboration with states for tax harmonisation; and institutional repositioning to earn public trust.

The FIRS chairman said it was important to restructure the productive base of the economy away from crude oil and embrace a system with multiple engines of growth in agro-processing, the digital economy, the creative industry, solid minerals, and others.

Adedeji, however, stressed that “the task of building economic resilience does not lie solely with the government,” adding that academics and other stakeholders should play their part by producing research that offers solutions to contemporary challenges.

He said the FIRS, under his leadership, was ready to embrace partnerships that would support academic efforts aimed at bridging the town–gown gap.

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

Charging the students to stand out, 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 took the opportunity to commend the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Taiwo Asaolu, who was his lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. The tax chief recalled how the then Dr Asaolu paid for his final-stage examinations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants during his second year as an undergraduate.

He narrated how he had resigned himself to fate due to lack of funds to register for the examinations, but Asaolu, on noticing his mood, asked why he was not preparing. On hearing his predicament, the lecturer berated him for keeping such a challenge to himself, took him to his office and wrote him a personal cheque covering the required amount.

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

Still highlighting Asaolu’s support, Adedeji recounted an incident during the ICAN final examinations when a supervisor accused him of cheating, an offence punishable by a six-year ban. He said Prof. Asaolu staked his ICAN certificate, insisting that Adedeji could not have cheated because he knew his academic strength.

To prove his student’s innocence, Asaolu offered the supervisor two options: compare Adedeji’s answers with the textbook or notes found under the desk and seize his certificate if they were similar; or give Adedeji a new answer sheet with strict instructions not to answer the same questions. The supervisor chose the latter. Adedeji answered different questions and passed excellently.

He noted that Asaolu’s intervention saved him from a wrongful six-year ban. “That is why Professor Asaolu is not just my lecturer; he is my father,” Adedeji declared.

Welcoming guests earlier, Prof. Asaolu said the two-year-old institution aims to use the public lecture as a platform to discuss pressing global and national issues while seeking sustainable solutions to Nigeria’s economic challenges.