NRS, DigiTax ramp up e-invoicing support as compliance deadline looms for Nigerian businesses
By Aboki Forex —
Large taxpayers in Nigeria are now required to transmit invoices through the e-invoicing framework, and medium taxpayers are preparing to onboard later this year. The Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), accredited platform providers, and technical partners are scaling up engagement to support the transition.
The NRS e-invoicing framework requires businesses to transmit invoices through the Merchant Buyer Solution (MBS) platform. Each transaction is validated and assigned an Invoice Reference Number (IRN), which serves as proof of compliance. According to an implementation notice released by the NRS on February 17, businesses that have not yet completed integration risk exposure to non-compliance measures once enforcement begins for their category. Buyers transacting with non-compliant suppliers may be unable to claim VAT input credit on those transactions.
Progress and challenges for large taxpayers
In its notice, the NRS stated that since go-live, “significant progress has been recorded, with the onboarding of the majority of large taxpayers, many of whom have commenced the successful transmission of invoice data to the MBS platform.” Speaking at a two-day post-go-live e-invoice workshop for large taxpayers in Lagos, Mohammed Bawa, project manager of the National E-Invoicing Project at the NRS, described the initiative as a shared undertaking. “Everyone benefits from the bigger picture: taxpayers, banks, service providers, and government,” he said.
DigiTax, an NRS-accredited e-invoicing platform developed by Namiri Technology Limited, is among the providers working to accelerate business onboarding. Accredited as both a system integrator and access point provider, DigiTax integrates with existing financial systems and ERPs, validates invoices, and routes them through the MBS platform.
Compliance breakfast and new research
On July 14, DigiTax will host an e-invoicing compliance breakfast at The Wheatbaker Hotel in Lagos. The event will bring together NRS officials, e-invoicing technical experts, and senior finance leaders for a working session on integration, onboarding, and compliance strategy. “The questions we are hearing from large and medium businesses are practical: how long integration takes, what it means for their finance and ERP environments, and what exposure they carry from suppliers who have not yet onboarded. We designed the Compliance Breakfast to put those questions directly to the regulator and the technical partners behind the platform, and to launch original research on the transition,” said Olumide Akinsola, Country Director of DigiTax Nigeria.
The research, a whitepaper titled “The State of E-Invoicing Readiness in Nigeria”, will be launched at the event. It will examine compliance patterns across comparable African markets, alongside projections for Nigeria’s readiness landscape.
Technical architecture and global standards
D'Accubin Technology, the developer behind the NRS e-invoicing system's technical architecture, built the platform using the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0-aligned structured invoice standards, implemented using UBL. Speaking at an NRS stakeholder engagement session on the e-invoicing pilot rollout held at the Four Points by Sheraton in Lagos, Sadiq Arogundade, CEO of D'Accubin and Lead Technical Consultant to the NRS's national e-invoicing initiative, said: “We built this in-house, ensuring it aligns with global best practices.” Arogundade will join the panel at the July 14 Compliance Breakfast.
What it means for businesses and the naira
The NRS e-invoicing framework is set to extend to medium taxpayers with turnover between N1 billion and N5 billion. This broadening of the compliance infrastructure will bring more Nigerian businesses into the formal tax net. For businesses, the key risk remains losing VAT input credit if they transact with non-compliant suppliers. For the naira and the broader economy, improved tax compliance could boost government revenue, potentially reducing pressure on the currency over time.