A man looks at an electronic board showing the foreign exchange trading price of the Japanese yen against the US dollar on a street in Tokyo on April 4, 2025. | Credit: AFP Nigeria’s foreign currency-denominated tax receipts rose sharply to N6.33tn in 2025, reflecting increased contributions from multinational firms and exchange rate effects, an analysis of data released by the National Bureau of Statistics has shown.
The figure represents a 27.3 per cent increase from N4.97tn recorded in 2024, highlighting a growing reliance on foreign-currency-linked tax inflows amid currency volatility and the expanding activities of foreign and export-oriented companies. Breakdowns from the NBS Value Added Tax and Company Income Tax reports, analysed by The PUNCH, show that foreign currency tax payments accounted for a significant share of total tax collections across the two major tax heads.
Total VAT collections rose from N6.72tn in 2024 to N8.61tn in 2025, while CIT collections increased from about N7.66tn in 2024 to N9.22tn in 2025. Combined, total VAT and CIT stood at approximately N17.83tn in 2025. Of this, the N6.33tn paid in foreign-currency terms amounts to about 35.5 per cent of total tax receipts, indicating that more than one-third of government earnings from these taxes were tied to foreign-currency transactions.
A closer look at the VAT component shows that “other payment channels, including naira equivalent of VAT paid in foreign currency,” rose from N1.83tn in 2024 to N2.10tn in 2025. This category captures VAT payments associated with foreign-currency transactions, particularly in sectors such as telecommunications, oil and gas, financial services, and digital platforms operating across borders.
Similarly, company income tax paid in foreign currency increased from N3.14tn in 2024 to N4.23tn in 2025. This category reflects taxes paid by companies earning in foreign currencies, including multinational corporations, oil producers, exporters, and firms in sectors with dollar-denominated revenues.
The CIT data showed significant volatility across quarters. In the first quarter of 2025, foreign-currency CIT stood at N1.34tn, then dropped sharply to N469.36bn in the second quarter. It rebounded strongly to N1.75tn in the third quarter, before moderating to N668.21bn in the fourth quarter.
Overall, total taxes paid in foreign currency rose from N1.03tn in the first quarter of 2024 to N1.79tn in the first quarter of 2025, showing a strong start to the year. However, the second quarter of 2025 saw a decline to N929.30bn, followed by a peak of N2.43tn in the third quarter and a subsequent drop to N1.17tn in the fourth quarter.
The rising share of foreign-currency tax receipts comes as Nigeria has implemented exchange rate reforms and moved toward a more market-reflective currency regime. This has increased the naira value of foreign-denominated transactions, thereby boosting tax collections when converted to local currency.
The data also showed that local VAT collections, excluding imports, increased from N3.30tn in 2024 to N4.48tn in 2025, indicating steady growth in domestic consumption. Import VAT collected by the Nigeria Customs Service also rose from N1.59tn to N2.03tn over the same period.
On the CIT side, local company income tax payments grew from N3.40tn in 2024 to N4.99tn in 2025, suggesting improved corporate profitability or enhanced tax compliance among domestic firms. However, the faster growth in foreign-currency tax components relative to local sources highlights a structural shift in Nigeria’s tax base toward sectors with foreign-exchange exposure.