ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s tax receipts rose 56% in 2022 to 10 trillion naira ($22 billion), its highest collection on record, the head of the country’s revenue service said on Monday.
Africa’s biggest economy has one of the lowest tax collection rates in the world. Its government has repeatedly said it wants to boost non-oil revenues since oil sales make up 90% of foreign exchange receipts.
But raising more money from taxes has proved difficult in a country where many small business are not registered.
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) head Muhammad Nami said in a report that non-oil tax collection accounted for more than half of total taxes and that the deployment of a new automated tax administration system in June 2021 had boosted collections.
Tax receipts hit 6.4 trillion naira in 2021 after they dropped to 4.95 trillion naira in 2020, impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns and a recession. The FIRS collected 5.27 trillion naira in 2019.
($1 = 454.55 naira)
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh,; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha, editing by Ed Osmond)