E-Invoicing Mandate: NRS Targets Full Adoption by 2028, Cites Compliance and Revenue Gains
The Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) is strategically rolling out its electronic invoicing initiative, aiming for complete taxpayer adoption by the end of 2028. This ambitious digitalisation drive is designed to significantly bolster tax compliance, curtail revenue leakages, and inject greater transparency into Nigeria’s tax administration landscape.
Speaking at a DigiTax E-Invoicing Compliance Breakfast Session in Lagos, Mr. Mohammed Bawa, Project Lead for the NRS E-Invoicing Project, highlighted the initiative’s alignment with global tax digitisation trends. He emphasised its crucial role in elevating Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio, currently among the lowest in Africa. The e-invoicing system promises enhanced visibility into cross-sectoral transactions and will be instrumental in formalising economic activities within the informal sector.
The framework, underpinned by the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, standardises invoice formats nationwide using globally recognised schemas, thereby improving efficiency for both businesses and tax authorities. This transition marks a significant step towards an automated system-to-system interaction model, moving away from manual processes. The Act also stipulates penalties for non-compliance, a factor the NRS is prepared to enforce.
The NRS has completed the onboarding phase for large taxpayers and is now preparing for enforcement actions against defaulting entities. Medium taxpayers are slated to commence compliance in the third quarter of 2026, with emerging taxpayers to follow in 2027. Bawa urged all taxpayers yet to integrate to initiate the process promptly, collaborating with NRS-accredited service providers.
Mr. Olumide Akinsola, Country Director of DigiTax Nigeria, underscored the commercial implications for businesses. He advised companies to extend their compliance assessment to their supply chains, noting that suppliers not transmitting invoices via the MBS platform could jeopardise a business’s ability to claim VAT input credits. This supply chain exposure represents a substantial, often unquantified, commercial risk. DigiTax, operating across Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, and the UAE, has observed that early adopters in other markets successfully avoided disruptions associated with enforcement deadlines.
The technical underpinnings of Nigeria’s e-invoicing framework, as detailed by Mr. Alexander Ogunsina, IT Project Manager at D’Accubin Solutions, are built on international standards including PEPPOL, BIS 3.0, and UBL 2.1. This global compatibility ensures that Nigerian invoices meet international trade requirements, a critical consideration for businesses engaged in cross-border commerce.
