FIRS Continues Onboarding Large Tax Payers, Gives Date to Begin E-Invoicing

• The Federal Inland Revenue Service has commenced the onboarding process for large taxpayers for its e-invoicing platform
• The agency disclosed that the platform will go live on July 25, 2025, and will be used to track transactions
• It will roll out the service on its Merchant Buyer Solution, providing a digital representation of transactions between suppliers and buyers

Legit.ng’s Pascal Oparada has reported on tech, energy, stocks, investment and the economy for over a decade.

The Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has started onboarding large taxpayers on its Merchant Buyer Solution (MBS) interface.

It will begin implementing the national e-invoicing project fully on July 25, 2025.

The new platform to phase out paper invoices

The project is a Merchant Buyer Solution that provides a digital representation of transactions between suppliers and buyers, replacing traditional paper or electronic documents such as invoices, credit notes, and debit notes.

The platform is a digital portal that shall be used by all VAT-registered taxpayers’ businesses to manage the issuance of e-invoices in line with Section 25, Part 5 of the Tax Administration and Enforcement Act 2007.

FIRS’ lead consultant of the MBS project, Sodiq Arogundade, disclosed at the onboarding event at Radisson Blu Hotel in Lagos, on Monday, May 26, 2025, that the MBS was designed with an effective application programming interface (API) to ensure user-friendliness.

The service continued its stakeholder engagement with the oil and gas services and the midstream sector in Lagos.

The MBS is to go live in July

According to Arogundade, the system is ready to go live on July 25, 2025.

He said:

“We are also making sure that we accommodate as many innovators as possible to build end users’ products. What we have built is a 100% restful API system.”

He disclosed that the e-invoicing implementation project would allow businesses to begin generating electronic invoices, stressing that there is no pressure for firms to integrate into the system immediately.

He said businesses have to decide to onboard on the system by enabling themselves on the portal using the API.

Reports say that Arogundade explained the e-invoice generating process, stating some Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMS) have engaged the agency to build a middleware service to simplify the process.

He stated the service is already engaging OEMs, and they are integrating fast to ensure that they create a middleware service.

FIRS will use the platform to track security

FIRS’s Director of Technology, Richard Kimeku, said the project was designed to boost transparency and improve Nigeria’s tax administration, saying that it is not a payment platform but a transaction tool.

He said that the tool is essential and that the agency will have data on transactions and could be used across human resources and security.

He revealed that the FIRS will be used to track transactions and determine the actual tax liability.

“And so, things like turnover and suppression will not be there anymore because it is transparent and visible, and it will mean a better view of tax administration,” he said.

FIRS Rakes in N5.5 Trillion in Tax Revenue in 6 Months

Legit.ng reported that the FIRS collected a total tax revenue of N5.5 trillion for six months from January to June 2023.

Legit.ng earlier reported that FIRS set a new record after collecting over N10 trillion in revenue in 2022. It was the first time the revenue agency crossed the N10 trillion mark in tax revenue collection.

The agency's realisation of this feat is coming despite the fact that Nigerians have been plagued by several economic hardships in the course of the six months including naira scarcity, inflation, fuel subsidy removal and high petrol prices.

Source: Legit.ng