On 31 July 2026, the Nigeria Revenue Service (“NRS”) issued the Guidelines on the Taxation of Virtual Assets (the “NRS VA Tax Guidelines” or the “Guidelines”). The Guidelines establish a detailed administrative framework governing the tax obligations of Virtual Asset Service Providers (“ VASPs”) and persons engaged in Virtual Assets (“VA”) transactions, setting out the applicable registration, reporting and record-keeping requirements.
The NRS VA Tax Guidelines arrive at a pivotal moment for Nigeria’s digital assets ecosystem, which is one of the largest and most active markets in Africa. Earlier, on the 30th June 2026, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026 (the “VAC Presidential Order” or the “Order”), establishing a coordination framework for VA regulation. The Order addresses regulatory fragmentation by creating inter-agency structures designed to safeguard financial system integrity and protect citizens from fraud while supporting responsible innovation.
For VASPs, peer-to-peer (“P2P”) marketplace operators, fintech companies and institutional investors, the Guidelines significantly change the compliance requirements for market participants. They expand the role of VASPs beyond that of market intermediaries, imposing obligations that effectively position VASPs as tax collection agents within the VA ecosystem. Individuals and businesses realising gains from the disposal or trading of virtual assets (including cryptocurrency, digital tokens and other VA instruments) are now subject to a structured income tax framework, with VASPs responsible for withholding and remitting taxes at source.
