In 2010, Tanzania launched its Electronic Fiscal Device Management System (EFDMS), which requires businesses to issue fiscal receipts through certified electronic devices linked to the tax authority. Rwanda followed in 2017 with the second generation of its Electronic Billing Machines (EBM 2), a system that automates invoice reporting and has significantly improved VAT compliance. 

Uganda introduced its Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (EFRIS) in 2020, enabling businesses to transmit invoice data directly to the Uganda Revenue Authority in near real time. More recently, Ghana rolled out its Virtual Sales Data Controllers (VSDCs) in 2023, replacing physical fiscal devices with cloud-based software that captures transaction data electronically.

South Africa, by contrast, is currently rolling out its digital tax and e-invoicing framework as part of its VAT Modernisation Project, with the legal foundation proposed in late 2025 and phased mandatory implementation expected to begin starting in 2028

But with one of the continent’s largest economies and over 2.5 million registered businesses, Nigeria’s rollout could become Africa’s largest e-invoicing programme, making its success or failure a potential model for other emerging markets pursuing digital tax reforms.

From paper invoices to machines talking to machines

The e-invoicing project represents a fundamental shift in how governments think about taxation. Rather than depending primarily on annual filings and audits, the NRS is building a system that continuously receives invoice data directly from businesses through approved Access Point Providers and System Integrators.

Every invoice transmitted carries a unique Invoice Reference Number, allowing the tax authority to compare what companies actually sell with what they later declare in tax returns, according to Bawa.

“If you say your turnover is ₦10 million ($7,253), we can compare that with the invoice data,” Bawa said. “The whole essence is for invoices to serve as a deterrent, not to punish.”

The technology itself goes beyond replacing paper invoices with digital copies.

“Electronic invoicing is exactly what it sounds like—creating and exchanging invoices electronically,” Emmanuel Edet, Acting Director of Regulation and Compliance at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigeria’s tech regulator, told TechCabal in an interview. 

“But it goes beyond simply generating a digital copy of an invoice. The real concept is about machines communicating directly with other machines.”

He illustrates it with a supermarket. Each time a bottle of Coca-Cola is sold, the inventory system automatically updates stock levels. Once stock falls below a predetermined threshold, the system sends a purchase request directly to Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola’s system then generates and transmits an electronic invoice automatically, without emails, phone calls, or manual paperwork.

“That entire exchange happens digitally,” Edet said. “That is the essence of electronic invoicing.”

For the tax authority, those digital exchanges create something it has never had before: a continuous stream of commercial data. But the benefits extend beyond taxation.

“The NRS is interested in transaction volumes for tax administration,” Edet said. “But the system also provides visibility into trade volumes, supports cross-border commerce under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and enables better tracking of both physical and digital transactions.”

Standardised digital invoices make transactions easier to verify across jurisdictions, reducing paperwork and customs delays while improving VAT administration and fraud detection. For businesses, particularly SMEs, they simplify compliance in multiple markets and create trusted transaction records that can support access to trade finance.

Learning from countries that stumbled

Building a national tax platform that businesses actually use requires much more than software.

Many governments have struggled to roll out digital tax systems by prioritising technology over stakeholder engagement. Poland suspended its mandatory e-invoicing system (KSeF) weeks before its planned 2024 launch, while Kenya abandoned its hardware-based Tax Invoice Management System (TIMS) after strong resistance from businesses, replacing it with a software-based alternative between September 2023 and March 2024.

Nigeria is trying a different approach.

According to Sadiq Arogundade, founder of D’Accubin,  a Nigerian software company that developed the NRS platform, months were spent engaging businesses before development began, with feedback shaping the system long before a single line of production code was written.

The agency created industry-specific focus groups covering telecommunications, manufacturing, oil and gas, banking and other sectors, according to Arogundade, who is also Lead Consultant to the NRS on the National E-Invoicing Initiative. Officials met companies including MTN, Huawei, UBA, Access Bank and Ecobank to understand how invoices were generated inside existing systems.

“We didn’t wait for the challenges to come before thinking about how to mitigate them,” Arogundade told TechCabal in an interview.

Consultation continued after development through stakeholder sessions, pilot programmes and repeated testing before enforcement, he added. The phased rollout itself reflects lessons learned from countries that struggled with nationwide implementation.

“Many countries are trying to copy this model,” Arogundade said. “Malaysia implemented something similar, and it failed. One of the strategies we adopted was rolling it out in phases instead of forcing every business sector to migrate at once.”

Malaysia slowed the rollout of its e-invoicing by extending its penalty-free transition period through 2026 and raising the mandatory compliance threshold to RM1 million ($244,600) in annual revenue, effectively exempting micro-businesses and small traders. 

Building an ecosystem 

Behind the scenes, NITDA is mandated with the accreditation of the companies that help with onboarding on the platform.

“Our role is essentially to enable the ecosystem,” Edet said. “Technology companies provide electronic invoicing solutions. We ensure any company operating in this space is technically competent.”

NITDA certifies Access Point Providers and System Integrators, verifying that they comply with standards covering cybersecurity, data protection, electronic invoice formats and system reliability.

When the accreditation process opened in early 2025, about 37 companies applied. Initially, only around a dozen met the technical requirements. Today, Edet estimates that roughly 50 providers have been certified.

Many applicants arrive believing they are ready.

“When we evaluate them, they often discover gaps and have to go back and improve their systems,” he said.

One of NITDA’s non-negotiable requirements is that e-invoicing data be hosted within Nigeria.  The policy aligns with the country’s broader push for data sovereignty, including the Central Bank of Nigeria’s June 15 directive requiring banks and other regulated financial institutions to store critical customer and payment data locally rather than on foreign cloud infrastructure by January 1, 2027. 

“We require data to be stored locally because we want Nigeria to maintain sovereignty over economic data generated within the country,” Edet said. “That data is important for national planning and development.”

Another challenge was ensuring businesses could actually connect.

Large Nigerian companies operate a fragmented enterprise software landscape, with businesses running different ERP platforms—from SAP and Oracle to Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, Odoo, and home-grown accounting systems—creating a challenge for any nationwide e-invoicing rollout that must integrate with multiple software environments. Replacing those systems would have made compliance prohibitively expensive.

Instead, the platform relies on APIs that allow existing software to communicate directly with the NRS.

Olumide Akinsola, country director of Digitax, one of the approved Access Point Providers, said businesses do not need to replace their technology.

“We currently support integrations with more than 50 ERP systems,” Akinsola said. “I’m yet to meet an ERP that is impossible to integrate.”

Edet believes that while businesses will incur upfront integration costs, those costs will eventually be offset by operational savings.

“Electronic invoicing significantly reduces paperwork, eliminates much of the documentation businesses traditionally submit to tax authorities, and lowers the administrative costs associated with compliance,” he said. “Overall, while there is an upfront investment, the long-term expectation is lower compliance costs, greater transparency and more efficient business processes.”

More than taxes

The value of the platform extends well beyond tax collection. The invoice contains information on consumption patterns, industry activity, supply chains and trade flows that can inform economic policy.

“What people buy, how much is consumed—all that data are beyond taxes,” Arogundade said.

Bawa believes the government’s wider digital agenda is beginning to converge around shared infrastructure rather than isolated systems.

Questions have been raised about whether the e-invoicing platform overlaps with the recently enacted National Identity Management Commission framework, particularly around digital identity and trust services.

Bawa rejects that view.

“The government is trying to reduce this silo approach of deploying systems,” he said. “If there is an opportunity to share data, everyone should come under one umbrella instead of every agency building separate solutions.”

The same approach is reflected in Nigeria’s new Tax Identification Number (TIN) framework, which draws on existing identity records from the National Identity Number (NIN) database and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), reducing the need for taxpayers to undergo separate registration processes.

The real test begins

The platform has been engineered to process roughly 50,000 requests every second using a microservices architecture that distributes traffic automatically as demand increases, according to Sadiq.

Security has been equally central to the design, with encrypted transmission, public key infrastructure, role-based access controls and decentralised storage protecting commercially sensitive invoice data, he added.

But despite the technical sophistication, officials acknowledge that success ultimately depends on adoption rather than technology.

“Like any regulation, implementation is tested in the real world,” Edet said. “We are not afraid to adjust where necessary. Our priority is ensuring that the ecosystem functions effectively.”

He says the objective is not to exclude businesses that struggle during the transition from manual to digital processes.

“Our role is simply to ensure that the technology works reliably and supports that transition.”

For now, the NRS is focused on getting taxpayers connected, integrated and transmitting invoices. Only after collecting enough transaction data will it begin comparing real-time commercial activity with historical tax filings.

“We already know what success looks like,” Bawa said. “We need to ensure taxpayers are onboarded, integrated and transmitting. Once people know the Service has greater visibility, the tendency to under-declare turnover or overstate expenses should reduce.”

If that happens, Nigeria’s biggest tax reform may ultimately be remembered not for changing tax law, but for quietly turning invoices into the digital infrastructure that connects businesses, government and the wider economy.

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