The Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) has intensified moves to enforce a nationwide electronic invoicing framework, unveiling a phased compliance timetable that places large taxpayers at the centre of an aggressive push to digitise tax administration and widen the country’s revenue base.
 
The revenue agency warned that organisations failing to comply with the new regime could face penalties of up to N1 million on the first day of default, alongside additional daily sanctions.
 
The disclosure was made yesterday during a webinar organised by the Fiscal Policy and Planning Thematic Group of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) Trade, Investment and Competitiveness Policy Commission, with the theme, “E-Invoicing: A Game Changer?”
 
The session was organised to examine the role of electronic invoicing in improving tax compliance, strengthening value-added tax (VAT) collection and supporting Nigeria’s transition to a data-driven tax system.
 
Project Manager of the National E-Invoicing Project at the NRS, Mohammed Bawa, described the initiative as a major shift from paper-based invoicing to real-time electronic reporting.
 
According to him, invoices currently generated in formats such as PDF, Word documents, JPEGs or scanned copies would now be required in structured electronic formats, particularly XML or JSON, enabling automatic transmission to the tax authority.
 
“E-invoicing simply means an invoice in a structured format that is issued, transmitted and received electronically,” Bawa said.
 
He explained that the framework aligns with international standards, including the Universal Business Language (UBL) invoice schema, the World Customs Organisation Harmonised System and ISO information exchange protocols.
 
Bawa noted that the legal foundation for enforcement had already been established under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, which mandates that all taxable supplies be processed through the Merchant Buyer Solution (MBS), the NRS-designated fiscalisation platform.
 
Under Section 23 of the Act, any taxable person who fails to process transactions through the platform risks an administrative penalty of N200,000 in addition to 100 per cent of the tax due, plus interest at the prevailing Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) monetary policy rate.
 
He added that entities refusing to grant authorities access to deploy the required technology after 30 days’ notice would incur a penalty of N1 million for the first day of default and N10,000 for every subsequent day.
 
“We are currently reviewing the compliance level of all large taxpayers. Based on our publication, every large taxpayer is expected to be compliant by November 30,” Bawa said.