Nigerians will begin paying a 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on selected banking services, including mobile bank transfers and USSD transactions, from January 19, 2026, following a new government-backed regulatory directive.<\/p>\n
SaharaReporters obtained a notice sent to customers on Wednesday afternoon by Moniepoint, informing users of the impending implementation of the VAT regime on certain electronic banking charges.<\/p>\n
According to the notice, the development is tied to a directive from tax authorities mandating financial institutions to begin VAT collection and remittance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like to inform you of an upcoming government-endorsed regulatory change regarding Value Added Tax (VAT),\u201d the notice stated.<\/p>\n
It added, \u201cFrom Monday, 19 January 2026, we are required to collect a 7.5% VAT, to be remitted to the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS) (formerly known as the Federal Inland Revenue Service).\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
The company disclosed that the tax will apply to \u201ccertain banking services,\u201d including \u201celectronic banking charges such as mobile banking fees (transfers), USSD transaction fees and card issuance fee.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Moniepoint clarified that not all banking-related transactions would attract the tax, noting that \u201cservices that DO NOT attract VAT include: interest on deposits and savings.\u201d<\/p>\n
The firm also distanced itself from responsibility for the new charges, stressing that \u201cthis is not a price increase by Moniepoint.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMoniepoint is required to collect and remit VAT to the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS),\u201d the notice read.<\/p>\n
It further explained that the tax authority had issued a clear timeline for compliance across the financial sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NRS has communicated a deadline for 19th January 2026 for all financial institutions (commercial banks, microfinance banks and electronic money transfer operators) to start collecting and remitting VAT,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Moniepoint also emphasised that the VAT would be limited strictly to service charges, stating that \u201cVAT applies only to banking or service fees, not interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Customers were also informed that the deductions would be clearly itemised, as \u201cVAT charge will appear separately on your transaction reports and statements.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new VAT enforcement is expected to affect millions of Nigerians who rely daily on mobile banking platforms and USSD services for financial transactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigerians will begin paying a 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on selected banking services, including mobile…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[63,302,83,3109,243,3110,5223,122,261,264],"class_list":{"0":"post-23491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nigeria","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-corruption","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-government","14":"tag-investigative-reporting","15":"tag-nigeria","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}