Corporate Nigeria races to beat June 30 e-invoicing deadline as sanctions loom

Corporate Nigeria is on a 24-hour countdown as the National Revenue Service (NRS) prepares to enforce its mandatory electronic invoicing regimen, leaving thousands of large companies racing to meet Tuesday’s June 30 deadline or risk financial penalties from July 1.

“By June 30, if you are not compliant, you will be liable for fines starting July 1,” said Olumide Akinsola, country director of DigiTax Nigeria, an accredited e-invoicing service provider.

For many businesses, however, the bigger threat is not the fine itself. Companies that fail to transmit invoices through the NRS Merchant Buyer Solution (MBS) platform will be unable to claim VAT input credits on those transactions, exposing them to significant tax costs and potentially disrupting commercial relationships with suppliers.

The deadline, which applies to companies with annual turnover of N5 billion and above, is the first major implementation milestone under Nigeria’s tax reform programme and one of the clearest tests yet of the government’s ability to enforce its ambitious fiscal reforms.

Mohammed Bawa, head of product management at the NRS, said companies that fail to begin invoice transmission by the deadline would be treated as defaulters.

“It simply means that the NRS, by then, has the mandate to apply sanctions for non-compliance,” Bawa said, although he noted that implementation timelines could still be reviewed depending on operational realities and challenges faced by taxpayers.

While the NRS says adoption is improving, industry participants believe many eligible companies are still working to complete compliance before the deadline.

According to Akinsola, more than 1,000 of the roughly 5,000 companies expected in the first phase had complied by late last year or early this year, suggesting thousands may still be racing to meet Monday’s deadline.

Akinsola also warned that businesses failing to comply would bear the financial consequences directly because VAT input credits can only be claimed on invoices successfully transmitted through the NRS platform.

“Not being compliant means you are actually leaking revenue because the input VAT you cannot claim back has to be paid from your own pocket,” he said.

Even companies that have completed integration say some implementation questions remain.

A Group Head of Tax at a leading commercial bank, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly, said his organisation had already connected to the NRS network but noted that businesses were still seeking clarity on certain aspects of the rollout.

“The issue is that the deadline is not so clear on what one can hold on to. Is it for running it live or starting transmission on the e-invoicing? Or for paying vendors? If small taxpayers are not on it yet, how can they raise invoices?” he said.

Tax technology specialist Ayodapo Bamidele said implementation has proved more complex than many businesses anticipated.

According to him, integrating existing accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with the NRS platform can take up to three months, including readiness assessments, system configuration and testing.

He identified incomplete financial records, poor data quality, invoice formats that do not align with NRS requirements, the absence of QR-code functionality in existing systems and the technical complexity of integration as some of the biggest challenges businesses face.

“One of the major reasons for e-invoicing is to ensure a more effective tax administration, which would definitely support government revenue,” he said.

Analysts say the reform could significantly improve tax transparency and reduce revenue leakages, but caution that compliance costs and system readiness remain concerns for many businesses.

“Efficiency is the obvious benefit. But the deeper impact is assurance. Continuous validation strengthens governance, enhances investor confidence and aligns Nigeria’s reporting standards with global best practice,” said Oluyemisi Daramola, partner at Bamidele Daramola & Co.

Businesses have also raised concerns over data privacy, system reliability and increased regulatory visibility.

“There are legitimate fears, from data security to how much visibility the authorities will have over transactions,” said Eben Joels, managing partner at Stransact.

Officials, however, maintain that the platform will reduce repeated audits and tax disputes by ensuring taxpayers and regulators rely on the same verified transaction data.

The June 30 deadline is only the first phase of the nationwide rollout. Medium-sized businesses with annual turnover between N1 billion and N5 billion will come into the regime from July 2026, while smaller businesses will be phased in later.

Whether thousands of companies successfully meet Tuesday’s deadline will provide the first real indication of whether Nigeria’s tax reforms can move beyond legislation into effective enforcement, stronger compliance and improved revenue mobilisation. (BusinessDay)