Nigeria, Others To Lead Digital Economy Innovation

Nigeria has taken a bold leap towards a fully digital economy innovation  as eTranzact and the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) revealed plan to revolutionise tax administration through automated digital innovation.

The collaboration aims to eliminate manual bottlenecks by providing taxpayers with a secure and user-friendly platform for real-time transaction reporting.

This landmark system is designed to enhance transparency and efficiency within the national tax framework while supporting the broader growth of the digital ecosystem.

Speaking at a stakeholder engagement workshop in Abuja, Executive Director of eTranzact, Abubakar Achimugu, reaffirmed the company’s commitment to facilitating same-day onboarding and effortless data uploads to the national portal.

Achimugu emphasised that the transition to digital invoicing will protect citizens from the burden of multiple taxation, noting that the company has deployed multiple application channels to ensure the process remains seamless for all users, regardless of their technical literacy.

“We at e-tranzact have had this collaboration with the NRS for so many years. We are the major platform that has been doing all the revenue collection in the country, especially on the VAT funds, which has been very exceptional, very seamless, secure, and safe.

“In respect to e-invoicing, we are moving away from the manual process to digitalisation. The platform (eTranzact) is very seamless, it’s user-friendly, regardless of your literacy level.

“This will also protect the average Nigerian from multiple taxation, such that as you are inputting and processing you are getting a notification to see what exactly you have paid for and documenting that process as well,” he said.

The executive director stated that the firm provides round-the-clock technical support to ensure that businesses can integrate with the NRS portal without delays. He added that the infrastructure is built to handle high volumes of data while maintaining the highest standards of security for financial records.

Similarly, NRS Project Manager, Mohammed Bawa, explained that the initiative is being rolled out in three distinct phases to accommodate different categories of taxpayers. The strategy, he said, prioritises large corporate entities before extending the digital requirements to medium and emerging enterprises over a three-year period.

According to him: “Our focus for now is how to support taxpayers to see how easily they can comply and that is why we have accredited so many service providers that will be there for the taxpayers when they have challenges.

“They (service providers) are in the best position to support the implementation and that is the only way the adoption (of e-invoicing) can be made seamless and easy to tax payers.”

Bawa encouraged businesses to leverage accredited service providers like eTranzact who have already passed rigorous technical validations, explaining that partners are positioned to offer the necessary expertise to help taxpayers navigate the transition from paper-based systems.

He said the modernised tax collection would boost the ease of doing business as the NRS intends to maintain a continuous cycle of public sensitisation to educate Nigerians on the long-term benefits of the project.