Fiscalising Nigerian invoices through your provider

How a Nigerian business fiscalises invoices under the NRS e-invoicing rollout through its Access Point Provider while its books are in Achekam.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria

Launching soon. Some of the screens this article describes for Nigerian and Kenyan businesses are not reachable in Achekam yet. They are coming soon.

Nigeria's tax authority now wants to see invoices as they are issued, not months later in a return. The Nigeria Revenue Service, formerly the FIRS, runs an e-invoicing system called the Merchant Buyer Solution, or MBS. An invoice that has gone through it carries an Invoice Reference Number, the IRN, and is said to be fiscalised. The NRS explains what the Merchant Buyer Solution is, and why it is bringing e-invoices in by stages, on its e-invoicing site.

For a business that keeps its books in Achekam, the obvious question is: does Achekam send my invoices to the NRS? The short answer is no, not directly. Your Access Point Provider does that. Achekam prepares the invoice data, holds the invoice until you have fiscalised it, and records the result. This article explains the timetable, the penalty and the steps.

The phased start by turnover

MBS is being phased in by annual turnover. At the time of writing, under the NRS notice of 17 February 2026:

Businesses connect to MBS through an approved Access Point Provider or System Integrator. You choose and contract with that provider yourself.

If your turnover puts you in the medium band, your start date has already passed. If you are in the emerging band, you have time, but choosing a provider and changing how invoices leave the business takes longer than most owners expect.

The penalty for not fiscalising

Failing to fiscalise an invoice carries a penalty of N200,000 plus 100 per cent of the tax, plus interest, under section 104 of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025. The penalty is tied to failing to fiscalise an invoice, so a business that issues invoices outside the system for months could face penalties far larger than the VAT on those invoices.

Manual pending: the file you upload

Without a working connection to your provider, Achekam holds each Nigerian e-invoice as manual pending. It gives you a JSON or XML file of the invoice to upload through your Access Point Provider.

The flow for each invoice is:

1. Issue the invoice in Achekam.
2. Download the e-invoice file it prepares.
3. Upload the file through your provider's portal or tools.
4. Note the IRN and any other identifiers the provider returns.
5. Record them against the invoice in Achekam.

Credit notes go through the same process. A business with a handful of invoices a week can work this way comfortably. One issuing many invoices a day should plan staff time for it, or press its provider about a direct connection.

Recording the IRN, verified by a second person

When you record the IRN the provider returned, a second person verifies it. Only then does the invoice count as fiscalised in Achekam.

The second check is not red tape. An IRN typed against the wrong invoice leaves one invoice wrongly marked as fiscalised and another not, and the mistake surfaces only when the NRS's records and yours disagree. Have the verifier compare the IRN with the provider's own record, not with the screen the first person typed into.

Achekam is not a provider and never makes an IRN

Achekam is not accredited by the NRS as an Access Point Provider or System Integrator, and it never generates an IRN itself. Any IRN in your books came from your provider.

A direct connection from Achekam to a provider's API exists, but production sending is not live as shipped. Before Achekam could send your e-invoices to your provider in production, three things would all have to happen: your business enters the provider's production address and keys, the connection passes a health check within 24 hours, and an Achekam platform administrator authorises the capability for production. A sandbox connection for testing needs no platform authorisation. Until all three are in place for your business, plan on the manual upload.

When the identifiers print on the invoice

Achekam prints the MBS identifiers on an invoice only once the invoice is fiscalised. Until then, the document says it is not yet fiscalised. A sandbox submission is labelled as test only, so a test can never be mistaken for the real thing.

That gives you a simple check before an invoice goes to a customer: if it says "not yet fiscalised", it is not finished.

The VAT return gives a second check. A Nigerian VAT return in Achekam lists the period's invoices, credit notes and till sales that are not fiscalised. It does not block the return, so it is up to you to act on the list before you file.

Getting ready

• Confirm your turnover band and your start date.
• Choose an Access Point Provider and agree how you will upload files.
• Decide who records IRNs and who verifies them; they must be different people.
• Make "not yet fiscalised" invoices part of your weekly review.
• Check the VAT return's list of unfiscalised documents before every filing.

Kenya runs a comparable system through eTIMS; issuing eTIMS invoices and recording them explains the Kenyan version. Small businesses below the VAT limit should read does a small Nigerian business have to charge VAT? first. And if you employ staff, payroll filing works through the States; see Nigerian PAYE by State: schedules and annual return.

If you have not yet chosen a provider, start there. Every other step in this article depends on it.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.