Nigeria Pushes E-Invoicing to Drive Tax Reform

Omolabake Fasogbon

Nigeria is accelerating the rollout of a nationwide e-invoicing regime as a critical pillar of its newly enacted tax reform laws.

Tax authorities and professionals reckoned that the system is critical to improving compliance, reducing fraud and restoring confidence in Nigerian business transactions, both locally and internationally.

They emphasised this at a practical e-invoicing workshop organised by the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) and the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), titled “Unlocking Business Value with NRS E-invoicing Merchant-Buyer,” noting that the initiative would translate policy into measurable revenue and accountability gains.

President of CITN, Mr. Innocent C. Ohagwa, pointed out that the effectiveness of the four new tax laws signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would depend largely on how well enabling technologies are adopted.

Speaking at the workshop in Lagos, Ohagwa said the reforms mark a clear break from manual, retrospective tax administration.

He explained that the NRS Merchant–Buyer Solution shifts the system from periodic reporting to real-time transaction capture. For businesses, he said, “This means greater certainty, efficiency and reduced compliance risk. For government, it provides credible data for revenue assurance and economic planning and for the economy, it strengthens trust, which is the most valuable currency of any credible tax system,” he said.

On his part, Project Manager, NRS MBS e-invoicing Solution, Mr. Muhammed Bawa said e-invoicing is designed to restore confidence in invoices issued by Nigerian businesses.

He noted that Nigerian invoices have historically faced global scepticism due to concerns about manipulation and weak controls.

Bawa affirmed that the new framework creates a single, verifiable source of truth for transactions.

“Invoices generated from accounting or enterprise systems are transmitted to a national database, validated and issued with unique reference numbers. Anyone receiving an invoice from a Nigerian supplier should be able to verify it and be confident it is authentic,” he said.

Chairman of CITN’s ICT Committee, Dr. Ruth Abiola Adimula, said the phased rollout of e-invoicing would modernise VAT reporting and improve audit efficiency.

She asserted that both business-to-business and business-to-consumer invoices would be transmitted electronically to the tax authority for validation before issuance.