The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has set the 1st February kick-off date for all importers and exporters to submit an electronic invoice (e-invoice) authenticated by the authorized dealer bank to the regulator. The CBN’s ‘Guidelines on the introduction of e-valuation, e-invoicing for import and export in Nigeria’ released Friday, directed that the e-invoice should be submitted on the Nigeria single window portal-Trade Monitoring System set up by the apex bank.
This disclosure was made by the CBN in a circular titled, “Guidelines on the introduction of e-evaluation, e-invoice for import and export in Nigeria” addressed to all authorized dealers and the general public, and signed by its Director, Trade and Exchange Department, Dr. O. S. Nnaji.
It stated that ‘further to the circular referenced TED/FEM/FPC/GEN/01/005 dated August 05, 2020, all authorized dealers and the general public are hereby informed of the introduction of e-valuator and e-invoice which replaces hard copy final invoice as part of the documentation required for all import and export transactions.
“Effective February 1, 2022, all import and export operations will require the submission of an electronic invoice authenticated by the authorized dealer banks on the Nigeria single window portal-Trade Monitoring System”.
According to the circular, the new regulation is primarily aimed at achieving accurate value from import and export items in and out of Nigeria.
“The e-invoicing guidelines also require that products that are more than 2.5 percent around the vertical price would be queried and will not be allowed successful completion of Form M or Form NXP as the case may be”.
“No importer/exporter may effect payment to the credit of any foreign supplier unless the electronic invoice has been authenticated by authorized dealer banks presented together with the relevant document for payments” it stated.
