The N50 stamp duty on Nigerian electronic transfers
When a Nigerian business pays the N50 stamp duty on electronic transfers, which transfers are exempt, and how to post the charge from the bank statement.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
Scroll down a Nigerian business's bank statement and the same small debit keeps appearing: N50, again and again, beside the supplier payments. Individually it is nothing. Across a month of transfers it adds up to a real expense, and if nobody posts it, the bank reconciliation never quite balances and the expense never reaches the accounts.
That N50 is stamp duty on electronic transfers. This article explains when it applies at the time of writing, which transfers escape it, who bears it, and how to get it into your books cleanly.
Transfers of N10,000 or more, paid by the sender
Nigeria charges a fixed N50 stamp duty on an electronic transfer of N10,000 or more. The sender pays it. It sits in the Nigeria Tax Act 2025's schedule of stamp duties, as the successor to the charge many people still call the EMTL, the electronic money transfer levy.
Three features define it:
- It is fixed. The duty is N50 whether the transfer is N10,000 or many millions.
- There is a floor. Transfers below N10,000 do not attract it.
- The sender bears it. On a payment you make, the duty is your cost. On a payment you receive, it is the payer's.
Salaries and transfers between your own accounts
Two kinds of transfer are exempt:
- salary payments;
- transfers between one owner's accounts at the same bank.
The second exemption is narrower than it sounds. Moving money between your current account and your savings account at the same bank is exempt. Moving it from your account at one bank to your own account at another bank is not covered by that exemption, even though the owner is the same.
The NRS's page on stamp duties explains which documents attract stamp duty under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025, how duty is shown (including electronic receipts), and the exemptions, including electronic transfers below N10,000, salary payments and transfers between your own accounts at the same bank. If your bank charges the duty on a transfer you believe is exempt, that page is the place to start the conversation.
Spotting the charge on the bank statement
Banks label the charge in different ways, so learn how yours describes it and make a note for whoever reconciles. In Achekam, you import the bank statement as PDF, CSV, Excel, OFX, QIF, MT940 or CAMT.053. Each import is checked so that the opening balance plus the movements equals the closing balance, which tells you at once if a page is missing. For a scanned or unrecognised PDF, an AI model can read the statement where your workspace has one configured, and every amount it reads must appear on the page.
Once imported, the stamp duty lines are easy to spot by amount and description. Check them as a group each month: the number of N50 charges should roughly match the number of qualifying transfers you made. Charges on salary runs or same-bank transfers between your own accounts deserve a question to the bank. Put the question in writing and keep the reply with the month's statement.
Posting it to its own expense account
Give the duty its own expense account, so that it does not disappear into general bank charges. Each business in Achekam has its own double-entry ledger with a standard chart of accounts created when the books first open, and you can add, rename or switch off accounts. Add one such as "Stamp duty on transfers".
Then post the charges:
- From the bank reconciliation. Bank lines are matched by suggestion, and a person accepts each match. A line that is not yet in the books, such as a stamp duty debit, becomes a suggested journal that a person approves. Approve it to your stamp duty account.
- By manual journal. If you prefer one entry for the month, post a manual journal. Achekam refuses an unbalanced journal or one dated in a closed month, and a posted journal is corrected only by a reversal.
A worked example in words. In March you made a run of supplier transfers of N10,000 or more from your account, and a few below that. The statement shows a N50 debit for each qualifying transfer. You import the statement, the reconciliation suggests journals for the N50 lines, and you approve each one to the stamp duty account. The bank reconciles, and March's stamp duty expense sits on its own line in the income statement.
Stamp duty on transfers and conveyances
Do not confuse the N50 electronic transfer duty with stamp duty on transfers and conveyances of property, which is a different charge: 1.5% ad valorem, meaning a percentage of the value. A business buying premises will meet that one through its lawyer, and it belongs with the cost of the transaction, not in monthly bank charges.
What Achekam computes once the rule is approved
Once its Nigerian rules are approved, Achekam's Revenue Service Centre computes stamp duty along with company income tax, the Development Levy, VAT, withholding tax and capital gains. Every Nigerian tax figure in Achekam's rule book was seeded "under review", and Achekam computes nothing from a figure until an Achekam platform administrator approves it.
For the N50 charge itself, the bank typically deducts it as transfers go out; your job is to record it. Getting the bank statement into Achekam regularly is the first step, especially if you have no automatic feed; see Nigerian and Kenyan bank statements without feeds. For the money coming the other way, read collecting naira payments.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
