Business
Myths and facts of the five per cent fuel surcharge
By Aderonke Atoyebi
It’s me again, here to clear the air. I am confident in this government and its vision, so I want to set the record straight. If you have been scrolling through social media or catching the news, you have probably seen people talking about a “five per cent fuel surcharge”. Some say it will hit our pumps in January 2026, while others claim it is a new tax meant to make life harder for Nigerians.
A fuel surcharge is a small extra charge on fuel, meant for a specific purpose. In this case, it is for our roads and transport infrastructure. The goal is to lower the cost of moving goods and people, ease logistics, and ultimately help bring down inflation. The five per cent surcharge has been around since 2007 under the FERMA Act, and its job is to make sure there’s money set aside for fixing and maintaining them. It is not a tax the government can use however it likes, and it is definitely not about immediately taking more from us at petrol stations.
The 2025 Tax Act didn’t create a new surcharge. What it does is modernise it, put it in a clear framework, and make it more transparent. This means the law is easier to understand, and everyone knows exactly how the money will be used.
Here’s the thing: a lot of Nigerians don’t understand: the five per cent fuel surcharge won’t automatically kick in January 2026. Before anything happens, the Minister of Finance has to give the official go-ahead, and it has to be published in the official gazette. This means Nigerians have time to plan, and families using household fuels like kerosene, cooking gas (LPG), CNG, or renewable energy won’t feel any impact.
So, why should we see this as a good step? Over the past two years, this administration has already delivered noticeable improvements on several roads across the country. Highways like the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Abuja-Kaduna Road, and sections of the Enugu-Onitsha route have seen repairs and upgrades, making travel faster and more comfortable. With the five per cent fuel surcharge, the government can continue this progress and expand it to more states.
Some people ask why the government can’t simply use the money saved from fuel subsidies instead. While subsidy savings do help, those funds are already stretched across education, healthcare, security, and other urgent national priorities. Having this surcharge means transport infrastructure all over Nigeria has its own dedicated money, so it doesn’t have to compete with other pressing needs and can be spent consistently where it matters most.
No need for all the back-and-forth. This five per cent fuel surcharge is simply a way to make our roads and transport systems better and safer for everyone.
With this fund, more roads across the country can be fixed and maintained properly, so that drivers, traders, and commuters don’t have to struggle with bad roads. Cars will last longer, goods will move faster, and our daily journeys to work, school, or market will be much easier. It’s a small step today that promises a big difference for Nigerians tomorrow.
Aderonke Atoyebi, the technical assistant on broadcast media to the executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, writes via contact@arabinrinaderonke.com
Business
TAJBank Emerges Nigeria’s Biggest Non-Interest Bank
Cyril Ogar
After five years of operations in Nigeria’s rapidly evolving non-interest banking (NIB) space, TAJBank Limited has become the biggest player in the NIB subsector based on its total assets and gross earnings values.
Disclosing this during his paper presentation on the key performance indices in the non-interest banking space over the past few years at a seminar organized by Leaders Corporate Services with the theme “Roles of Non-Interest Banks In SMEs’ Financing” for SME entrepreneurs yesterday in Abuja, an investment expert, Mr. Olabode Akeredolu-Ale, maintained that based on the non-interest banks’ approved financial statements for the half year 2025, TAJBank currently remained the biggest in terms of its total assets.
The expert, a chartered stockbroker, specifically confirmed that his recent investment researches on the NIBs and their financial performances showed that TAJBank, with its total assets rising to N1.017 trillion in half year 2025 up from N953.098 billion as of December 2024, which is about N53 billion higher than the nearest NIB’s assets, now ranked top in the banking subsector.
According to him, TAJBank’s gross earnings for H1 2025 also surged to N53.752 billion from N32.86 billion as of December 2024, representing a 64% growth, and higher than the nearest NIB’s gross earnings in the period under review.
This is even as he disclosed that on the NIBs’ earnings per share during the half year, TAJBank reported N61.36 kobo earnings per share, about 92% higher than the earnings per share of the next NIB during the period.
Akeredolu-Ale, who is also a chartered accountant, clarified: “The figures I am reeling out here on the NIBs are sourced from the banking and capital market regulatory institutions’ platforms, which anyone can access to verify.
“I am part of this event because of my research interest in non-interest banking and how the players in the subsector in Nigeria can help to leverage their competencies in innovation and ethical banking to support our MSMEs.
“Today, the MSMEs cannot access DMBs’ loans due to high lending rates and other inclement macroeconomic factors. This is where I think the NIBs have become very crucial to Nigeria’s economic growth.
“Overall, my findings on the NIBs indicated that they are all trying their best with non-interest loans to support entrepreneurs, particularly the MSMEs owners. I have advised those of them at this seminar to explore the cost-friendly financing options of the NIBs to grow their businesses by opening accounts with the NIBs”, the expert added.
Another speaker at the event, Benjamin Chukwudi, also commended the NIBs for their “catalytic roles in helping SMEs to access interest-free loans and providing them the needed financial management advisory, which have been helping them in sustaining their operations in the face of rising cost of doing business in the country.”
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