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Nigeria’s plan to grow tax and customs revenues to at least ₦17.85 trillion ($11.92 billion) in 2026 heavily depends on technology. With crude oil earnings shrinking, taxes have become one of the government’s most reliable funding legs.

Most of the collections will come from value-added tax, corporate income tax, customs levies, and the electronic money transfer levy, according to the 2025-2027 Medium Term Fiscal Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.

The government plans to raise ₦16.05 trillion ($10.72 billion) from these revenue sources in 2025. Before now, weak administration, low compliance, and manual, paper-based systems have left room for leakages, inefficiency, and corruption.

In 2025, Nigeria enacted new laws to address many of these issues, including multiple taxation of businesses. “We have opened the doors to a new economy, business opportunities,” said President Bola Tinubu. However, the real spotlight would be on its integration of digital tools.

“Technology adoption in tax administration has the potential to improve tax compliance, reduce the costs of tax collection, and increase revenue,” read a 2023 research paper on improving tax collection efficiency through technology.

Tech as the driving force

To optimise collections, Nigeria plans to implement strategies that expand VAT collection agents, simplify compliance procedures, and cut tax expenditures. However, technology will be the main driver, according to the fiscal strategy paper.

Nigeria is looking to mirror the success of countries like Rwanda, which digitised its customs process through the Electronic Single Window, and Kenya, which uses its iTax platform.

Locally, the government is relying on platforms like TaxPro Max, launched in 2021, to enable taxpayers to register, file, pay, and download tax clearance certificates online. Large businesses with turnovers above ₦5 billion ($3.34 million) since August 1, 2025, are required to integrate their invoicing systems with the FIRS platform for real-time validation and reporting.

“Leveraging technology, such as the automated tax administration system (TaxPro Max and E-services) to further simplify tax processes, drive voluntary tax compliance, increase revenue collection, and create a tax environment that is conducive for taxpayers to fulfil their tax obligations,” the government explained in its policy paper.

The government also intends to automate VAT collection in supermarkets, hotels, and other retail outlets, utilising real-time portals to prevent leakages.

By employing a real-time online data mining portal, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) will conduct desk reviews, audits, and investigations. This will enable it to “access data to validate information provided by taxpayers or reveal non-compliant taxpayers.”

“Nigeria’s digital economy has experienced exponential growth, transforming how businesses operate and process transactions,” FIRS told TechCabal in July. “However, this expansion has outpaced traditional tax monitoring methods, creating gaps in transaction visibility and compliance.”

The FIRS will also link its database to those of business or money-facing agencies such as the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for third-party intelligence gathering to improve and enforce compliance.

NIBSS, Nigeria’s central payment gateway, processed over ₦1 quadrillion ($667.79 billion) in transactions in 2024. In July, TechCabal reported that the FIRS has developed a real-time portal to track all VAT-eligible electronic transactions and is mandating integration from banks, card schemes, fintechs, and payment service providers.

“Enhancing stakeholder collaboration and engagement to check leakages, evasion as well as enforce and improve compliance,” the government said.

Banks and financial institutions will also face tighter monitoring as FIRS reconciles remittances of the EMTL, a ₦50 charge on transfers of ₦10,000 and above.

On the customs side, the government aims to address issues with its $3.2 billion customs modernisation project, originally conceived in 2015, which will fully automate and simplify customs processes, including payments.

However, years of litigation have delayed progress. In 2024, the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed a suit challenging the legality of the concession agreement related to the project.

For many businesses, integrating technology into tax administration means stricter compliance and fewer loopholes. “There is a positive relationship between firm digitalisation and domestic tax revenues. Countries with higher level of business digital adoption have larger tax-to-GDP ratios,” said the International Monetary Fund.

The Nigerian government is bullish about its revenue projections and has an even higher tax target of ₦19.73 trillion ($13.18 billion) for 2027. However, achieving these figures will depend on whether technology adoption can surpass well-known obstacles, including weak infrastructure, inconsistent implementation, and lack of political will.

As Taiwo Oyedele, chairman, Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, said in July, better tax administration will depend on “modernisation and improved technology adoption.”

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Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has developed a real-time portal to track all VAT-eligible electronic transactions and is mandating integration from banks, card schemes, fintechs, and payment service providers, according to an internal presentation seen by TechCabal, part of an aggressive push to plug tax leakages in the fast-growing digital economy.

“This system represents a transformative leap in transaction visibility. By monitoring VAT-eligible activities in real time, we are fostering a fair and transparent digital marketplace for all stakeholders,” Zacch Adedeji, the executive chairman of FIRS, said in a statement. 

Called the ‘Transaction Monitoring System,’ the portal requires financial institutions to route transactions through it, giving FIRS real-time visibility into VAT-eligible payments and where deductions may apply.

The move marks a major shift in how the tax agency enforces compliance in the financial services industry. Integrating with the portal will enable FIRS to assess taxpayer thresholds and reconcile invoices automatically. While the agency will not collect taxes directly through the portal, it will use it to monitor transactions in real time through a centralised dashboard. 

“Nigeria’s digital economy has experienced exponential growth, transforming how businesses operate and process transactions,” FIRS said in the statement. “However, this expansion has outpaced traditional tax monitoring methods, creating gaps in transaction visibility and compliance.”

The agency built the “platform (to) focus on real-time data collection, monitoring and ensuring complete transparency in the digital world,” the statement added. FIRS also claims that it is using “encryption and AI-driven validation to maintain transaction integrity.”

Financial institutions are being asked to connect to the portal because they can accurately document taxes on millions of micro-transactions, as banks must only report transactions above ₦5 million ($3,200). By plugging the institutions in, the tax agency captures the single biggest leakage point for consumption taxes and can audit tax declarations against bank records. The agency can also standardise all information on taxable transactions. 

In June 2025, President Bola Tinubu’s administration enacted new tax laws that empower the tax agency to automate tax processes. Under Section 71 of the Tax Administration Act, the agency can now deploy technology to handle tax assessment, collection, accounting, and data gathering. The law also imposes steep penalties for non-compliance under Section 103. ₦1 million ($652) for the first day of failure to grant system access and ₦10,000 ($6.5) for each additional day of default.

But those laws will take effect in January 2026, so the agency is relying on Section 25(4) of the FIRS Act, which gives it the same power with a 30-day notice to the taxpayer.

While collecting transaction data to improve tax compliance is legal, that data is not a definitive indicator of tax liability. Before relying on financial data, the tax agency cross-checks it against self-assessments, where individuals and businesses can claim deductions. If someone earns ₦5 million ($3,265) annually, they are not taxed on the entire amount, as eligible deductions reduce the taxable income.

How does it work? 

During several Zoom meetings with financial institutions, FIRS officials presented the agency’s plan and roadmap for integrating the Transaction Monitoring System into their digital infrastructure, according to one person who attended the meetings. To onboard, institutions must register directly on the portal and integrate via APIs before activating their dashboard. 

In a typical transaction flow, once a payment is received, financial institutions must first share the transaction data via API with FIRS’ VAT Rev Assure system, the agency’s tech-enabled tool to ensure all VAT is accurately calculated and promptly remitted, before sending it to the portal.

For payment service providers (PSPs) like Paystack and Flutterwave, if VAT is not collected at checkout, they must calculate VAT on the total transaction value. If VAT is included at checkout, PSPs are required to submit either the merchant’s VAT or the PSP’s VAT amount alongside the transaction data. All institutions must record both the VAT amount and the gross payment value for consumer payments. 

To facilitate this, PSPs will log in to a secure admin portal to share real-time transaction data, including the VAT component, for both merchants and customers. The data is then grouped accordingly and pushed to the Transaction Monitoring System. A streamlined support channel is available for handling refunds.

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