Getting a Nigerian tax clearance certificate
What a Nigerian tax clearance certificate covers, the two weeks the NRS has to issue it or give reasons, what can hold it up and how to read its expiry.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
A bank wants it before renewing your overdraft. A ministry wants it with your bid. A large customer's procurement team will not open your supplier account without it. In Nigeria, the tax clearance certificate is the document that tells outsiders your tax affairs are in order, and it is usually requested at the moment you can least afford a delay.
The Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 puts the NRS on a clock once you ask for one. That helps, but only if nothing on your side holds the request up. This article explains what the certificate covers, how quickly it should come, where to request it, what usually stands in the way, and why the expiry date needs reading carefully.
What the certificate covers
A Nigerian tax clearance certificate covers the last 3 years. It is a statement about your tax history over that period, not just about this year. A business that is fully up to date now but left a return unfiled two years ago is asking the NRS to clear a period with a gap in it.
Two weeks to issue it, or reasons
The NRS must issue a tax clearance certificate within 2 weeks of a request, or give reasons why it will not. That is a real improvement for planning: you can work backwards from the date a bank or tender needs the certificate, and know that the authority is bound to respond within that time.
"Or give reasons" is the other half. If the NRS's records show something outstanding, the answer within two weeks may be a list of what to fix rather than a certificate. Fixing it then takes as long as it takes, which is why the preparation below matters more than the clock.
Requesting it on Rev360
The NRS launched Rev360 (selfservice.nrs.gov.ng) on 30 April 2026 to replace TaxPro Max for registration, filing, payments, refunds and tax clearance certificates, and it is rolling the portal out in phases. The NRS describes its self-service portal as the place to register, file and pay taxes online, download tax clearance certificates and receipts, update your profile and track filings and payments. Before you request a certificate, use the tracking side of the portal to look at your own filing and payment history for the three years it will cover. How the portal took over from TaxPro Max is explained in Rev360: the NRS portal that replaced TaxPro Max.
What usually stands in the way
A frequent obstacle is a return that was never filed because nobody thought it was needed. Every Nigerian company, including a small or exempt one, must file an annual self-assessment return, due within 6 months after the year end for a company in business more than 18 months. A small company paying 0% tax that skipped its return has a gap the certificate will expose; see why a small Nigerian company still files a tax return.
Other usual suspects: a monthly VAT return missed in a quiet month, a payment made without the right reference so that it never reached the right tax, and a penalty that was assessed and never settled.
Achekam does not file Nigerian returns for you. A person with the business's NRS filing permission files on Rev360 and uploads the receipt, and a different person verifies it before the return counts as filed. A business that records every filing that way has a record in Achekam of what has been filed and verified, which is the first thing to check before a certificate request.
What Achekam checks in your own records
Achekam checks its own records for what would stand in the way of a tax clearance certificate. It never claims that the authority will issue one. That distinction is important: Achekam can only see what was recorded in Achekam. If a return was filed or a payment made outside it and never recorded, or if the NRS's records differ from yours, the NRS will see what Achekam cannot. Treat a clean result as a good sign and a starting point, and then compare with the portal.
Expiry: read it from the certificate
How long a Nigerian certificate stays valid is not settled in the new law. The Act states no validity period. Historically, certificates ran to 31 December of the year of issue, but the research marks the current position as uncertain.
Achekam therefore takes the expiry from the certificate itself. Where a Nigerian certificate states no expiry, Achekam shows none, rather than inventing one. Read the certificate when it arrives, note any expiry it states, and if it states none, ask whoever requested it (the bank, the ministry, the customer) how recent a certificate they will accept.
Preparing before a contract or tender needs one
- List the three years the certificate will cover, and every return due in them: monthly VAT, withholding tax, the annual company return, payroll returns.
- Check each one is filed, in Achekam's records and on Rev360.
- Check each payment reached the right tax and period, with its reference and receipt.
- Settle any outstanding penalty, and keep the receipt.
- Request the certificate on Rev360 at least two weeks before you need it, and longer if anything above needed fixing.
- File the certificate where the people who prepare bids and loan applications can find it.
If you also operate in Kenya, KRA's equivalent works differently; see getting and keeping a Kenyan tax compliance certificate.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
