Charging VAT on exports from Nigeria
Whether a Nigerian exporter charges VAT on goods and services sold abroad, how to code an export line in Achekam, and the evidence to keep for each.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
A Lagos garment maker ships an order to a buyer in Ghana. An Abuja design studio delivers a logo to a client in London. A Kano agro-processor sends dried produce to a distributor in Europe. Each of them raises an invoice, and each faces the same question at the VAT line: do I add 7.5%?
For most exports the answer is no, but "no VAT" can mean two different things on an invoice, and the difference matters for your return. This article sets out what the Nigeria Tax Act says, how to code an export line in Achekam, and the paperwork that backs the treatment up.
Exported goods are zero-rated, except oil and gas
Nigeria's standard VAT rate is 7.5%, unchanged when the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 took effect on 1 January 2026. Section 187 of the gazetted text then lists supplies that are zero-rated, meaning they are taxable supplies charged at a rate of nil. Exported goods are on that list, with one large exception: oil and gas exports are not covered by the zero rate.
Zero-rating is good news for an exporter. You charge your overseas buyer no VAT, but because the supply is still taxable, the VAT you paid on your own inputs (fabric, packaging, transport to the port) remains part of your VAT position rather than becoming a cost you simply absorb. That is the key difference from an exempt supply, where no VAT is charged but the link to input VAT is broken.
Supplies made before 1 January 2026 stay under the repealed VAT Act. If you are correcting an older export invoice, check the old rules with your adviser.
Exported services on the zero-rated list
The same section of the gazetted text also lists exported services among its zero-rated items, alongside things such as fertilisers and electric vehicles and their parts. For a consultancy, design studio, software house or outsourcing business selling to clients abroad, that is the relevant entry.
Services are harder than goods, because nothing crosses a border that customs can see. Whether a given service counts as exported depends on where it is supplied and used, which is the kind of question the NRS addresses in its rules on place of supply. The NRS's Information Circular on the changes in VAT administration explains the place and time of supply, input and output VAT with worked examples at 7.5%, and the monthly filing duties. If your service is partly performed or used in Nigeria, read it with your adviser before you zero-rate.
Coding an export line in Achekam
In a Nigerian workspace, each invoice line carries a tax code: standard, zero-rated, exempt, out of scope or reverse charge. Only standard lines carry VAT. For an export, choose zero-rated, not exempt and not out of scope, so that the supply is reported as the taxable-at-nil supply it is.
These codes apply once the Nigeria pack has been activated under Settings, Jurisdiction & regulators. Use the invoice form under Accounting, which follows your country's tax codes.
A practical side effect: while the Nigerian standard VAT rate is still awaiting approval by an Achekam platform administrator, Achekam refuses to charge standard-rate VAT on a Nigerian invoice. Zero-rated lines carry no VAT, so an export invoice coded correctly is not held up by that wait.
If a line is left without a stated rate, VAT is taken at the rate in force on the invoice date, and a credit note against an export invoice uses the original invoice's date and tax codes, so a correction stays zero-rated as well.
Invoices stay in your own currency for now
Neither invoice form in Achekam lets a business invoice in another currency. An export invoice is therefore issued in naira, even when the contract is priced in dollars or pounds.
In practice that means agreeing the conversion with the buyer before you invoice: which rate, on which date, and who carries the difference if the rate moves before payment. Put the agreed foreign-currency price and the rate used in the invoice description, so the buyer can match your naira figure to their purchase order.
Being paid from abroad through Paystack or Flutterwave
A naira invoice can be paid online through Paystack or Flutterwave, or by bank transfer. Both gateways can take payments on invoices in several currencies, including NGN and USD, and each payment is confirmed with the gateway before Achekam records it. Because your invoice is in naira, the pay link asks your overseas customer for the naira amount.
Before you send the first export pay link, check with your gateway which cards and countries it accepts for your merchant account, and how the payout reaches you. How confirmed payments are then booked is covered in collecting naira invoice payments online, and the wider question of selling to customers in other countries is in billing overseas customers.
Evidence to keep for each export
Zero-rating is a claim you may have to support. Keep a file for each export that would satisfy an NRS officer or your auditor without a phone call:
- the contract, order or engagement letter naming the overseas buyer;
- for goods, the export documentation from customs and the transport document, such as a bill of lading or airway bill;
- for services, evidence of where the client is based and where the service was delivered and used;
- proof of the payment received from abroad;
- the naira invoice, coded zero-rated, with the agreed foreign price and rate in its description.
Achekam's Document Centre lets you keep these in a folder per customer or per shipment, so the evidence sits next to the books it supports.
The list of what else Nigeria zero-rates, from basic food to educational materials, is in zero-rated goods and services under Nigerian VAT. Before your next export, open the last one you invoiced and check two things: that the line was coded zero-rated rather than exempt, and that its evidence file is complete.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
