Nigeria Mandates Crypto Tax Withholding for Exchanges and P2P Platforms

The Nigeria Revenue Service mandates a 1% withholding tax on taxable crypto disposals, though stablecoin transactions currently remain exempt from this specific requirement. To capture revenue from broader digital activity, the agency set a 10% withholding rate for staking, mining, airdrops, and DeFi rewards, while implementing a 1.5% stamp duty on all fiat-to-token and token-to-fiat conversions.

Operational compliance now requires platforms to remit withheld taxes in the specific tokens used during the underlying transaction, while VAT must be paid in the currency of the original payment. These guidelines, stemming from the 2025 Tax Acts, force providers to link user activity to Tax Identification Numbers and National Identification Numbers. Beyond simple reporting, firms must retain detailed transaction records for seven years and facilitate the identification of users for the Nigeria Revenue Service. This policy shift, directed by President Bola Tinubu’s July executive order, aims to integrate digital asset gains into standard taxable income, moving away from the previous standalone capital gains model.