Skip to main content

PAYMENTS

Pay the State

Every charge the Service raises is paid the same way: against a payment reference, through an accredited channel, into the State treasury single account, producing an electronic receipt that anyone can verify. No revenue officer may receive cash.

Paying in three steps

Whether the bill is ₦500 or ₦95 million, the process is identical.

1

Get your payment reference

It is printed on every demand notice, shown in the taxpayer portal, and can be generated on demand for a self-assessed charge. The reference identifies the taxpayer, the revenue head and the amount, so nothing can be misapplied.

2

Pay through any accredited channel

Bank branch, POS terminal, online card, bank transfer, USSD, Remita, direct debit or a designated cash office. Fourteen banks and six payment providers accept the reference.

3

Keep the electronic receipt

Issued immediately on electronic channels, within one working day on branch payments. It carries a receipt number, the revenue head code and your TIN, and can be verified by anyone.

Why it works this way

Before the reform, a taxpayer paid an officer, an officer paid an office, and an office paid the treasury — eventually, and net of whatever went missing along the way. Every one of those hand-offs was an opportunity for money to leak and for an honest taxpayer to be charged twice. The payment reference removes them all: the money goes from the taxpayer to the treasury in a single movement, and the Service learns about it rather than handling it.

The reference is the mechanism that makes this possible. It is generated when a bill is raised, encodes the taxpayer’s identity, the revenue head and the amount, and is recognised by every accredited bank and payment provider. A payment made against it cannot be applied to the wrong taxpayer or the wrong head, and it reconciles automatically the same day.

The receipt is the proof. It is electronic, carries a unique receipt number and can be verified by any third party — a contractor’s employer, a land registry, a licensing officer at a checkpoint — without contacting you. A paper receipt from a booklet has not been valid State revenue evidence since 2020.

The eight accepted channels

Channel How it works Availability Receipt issued
Bank branch Present the payment reference at the counter of any of the fourteen collecting banks Banking hours, any branch in Nigeria Within 1 working day
POS terminal Card payment at an area office, licensing station or accredited market agent Office hours and market days Immediately
Online card Card payment in the taxpayer portal or through the payment gateway 24 hours Immediately
Bank transfer NIP transfer quoting the reference, or to a dedicated virtual account 24 hours Within minutes
USSD Bank USSD string, entering the payment reference when prompted 24 hours, no internet required Immediately
Remita Remita retrieval reference paid at a bank, online or on the Remita app 24 hours Immediately
Direct debit Standing mandate for instalment arrangements and large employers On the agreed collection date On collection
Cash office Designated cash office at Revenue House, for taxpayers with no other means Mon–Fri 8:00–15:00 Immediately

Never pay a person

No revenue officer, enumerator, inspection officer, market official or "consultant" may receive money for a State charge. There is no exception to this rule and no circumstance in which it is waived.

If a payment does not produce an electronic receipt bearing a receipt number, a revenue head code and your TIN, it has not reached the State and you remain liable. Report it on the whistleblower page.

The Service will never ask you to pay into a personal account, and never sends account numbers by SMS or WhatsApp. Payment references are the only thing we send.

Check that a receipt is genuine

Enter a receipt number to confirm the taxpayer, the revenue head, the amount and the date.