How to write an invoice in Nigeria

What the document has to do

A good invoice answers four questions without anyone having to ring you. Who is asking for money. What was supplied. How much, and how that figure was reached. Where and by when to send it.

Two audiences read it. The person who ordered the work, who checks it against what they asked for, and the accounts payable clerk, who checks it against a policy. The clerk does not know you. Everything they need has to be on the page.

The elements a Nigerian invoice should carry

Work through this list before you send anything. Items near the top are the ones that get invoices rejected.

• The word "Invoice", so nobody files it as a quote.
• A unique invoice number.
• The date of issue and the payment due date, both written out.
• Your registered business name, exactly as it appears on your CAC certificate.
• Your RC number or business name registration number.
• Your Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN).
• Your trading address and at least one contact route that a stranger can use.
• The customer's registered name and address, and the name of the person or department the invoice is addressed to.
• The customer's purchase order or job reference, if they issued one.
• A line for each item or service, with quantity, unit price and line total.
• A subtotal, any discount, VAT if you charge it, and a total due.
• The currency, written as a code or in full, not just a symbol.
• Bank account name, number and bank, or a payment link.
• Payment terms in plain words.

A logo is not required, but a document that carries your mark and brand colours is easier for a customer to recognise in a mailbox. Billify puts your logo and brand details on every template.

Registered name, RC number and TIN

The registered name is the one on the certificate the Corporate Affairs Commission issued you. If you registered a business name, that is the name. If you incorporated a company, it ends in "Limited" or "Ltd" and carries an RC number. Trading under a shorter version of the name is fine in conversation. On an invoice it causes trouble, because the customer has to match the payee on the document to the name on the bank account.

The Taxpayer Identification Number is a single number used for all tax types. Corporate entities are issued a TIN by the tax authority, and its format is eight digits, a hyphen, then 0001, for example 12345678-0001. TINs issued through the Joint Tax Board are ten digits with no hyphen.

Many corporate customers will not raise a payment to a supplier with no TIN on file, and there is a tax reason as well as a policy one: where a vendor has no valid TIN, withholding rates are doubled. That is covered in the withholding tax guide. More detail on both numbers is in TIN and CAC details on your invoice.

Invoice numbers that do not collide

Every invoice needs its own number and no number should ever be reused. Two invoices with the same number is the single most common reason an accounts team asks you to reissue.

A sequence that works: a short prefix, the year, and a running count. INV-2026-0001, INV-2026-0002, and so on. It sorts correctly, it tells you and the customer roughly when the invoice was raised, and it does not restart in a way that produces a duplicate.

• Do not number by customer, for example ABC-01. You will end up with two ABC-01s the year after next.
• Do not use the date alone. Two invoices on the same day break it.
• Do not skip numbers to look busier. A gap invites a question you then have to answer.
• If you void an invoice, keep the number and mark it cancelled. Do not reissue the number.

If you raise invoices from more than one device or more than one person raises them, the counter has to live in one place. Billify assigns the next number on the account rather than on the device.

Payment terms and due dates

Write a due date, not a term. "Net 30" is a term. "Due 9 October 2026" is a date, and a date is what goes into a payment run. Put both if you like, but the date is the one that gets acted on.

Set the term to something you can chase. Fourteen days is common for services in Nigeria and thirty days is common with larger companies. What matters more than the number is that you follow it. An invoice with a due date you never mention again teaches the customer that the date is decorative.

• State the term on the invoice and in the covering message.
• If you charge interest or a late fee, it has to be on the invoice and in the contract before the work, not added afterwards.
• Name the payment routes you accept, and only those. A bank account plus a payment link is enough.
• If the customer needs a purchase order number before they can pay, get it before you invoice, not after.

Billify invoices can carry a payment link and a QR checkout, so a customer can pay from the document rather than copying account numbers. Payments settle to a Billify wallet and you withdraw to your bank account. Collection is in naira only, through Kora Pay.

Showing VAT

Nigerian VAT is 7.5%, and it is exclusive. It is added on top of your price, not carved out of it. If you quoted 600,000 and you charge VAT, the customer owes 645,000.

On the document, show the net amount, then the VAT as its own line with the rate written next to it, then the total. Never fold VAT into the unit price and leave the customer to work backwards. Their finance team needs the VAT figure separately to claim input tax.

When the customer is a company that withholds tax

Corporate customers, government bodies and larger businesses deduct withholding tax from what they pay you and remit it to the tax authority on your behalf. This is not a discount and it is not a dispute. It is tax paid forward against your own bill.

Withholding tax does not go on the invoice. You invoice the full amount. The customer deducts and pays you the balance, and should give you a credit note showing the amount deducted. Keep that credit note. It is what you set against your own tax.

What this changes on the document is your cash planning, not your maths. If you are invoicing a company for professional services, expect to receive less than the total, and know in advance how much less. The rates are in the withholding tax guide.

A filled example

Everything above, on one document. The names, numbers and account details below are invented for illustration.

Northbridge is a limited company, so it will withhold tax on the design fee before paying. At 5% on the 600,000 net of VAT, that is 30,000 withheld and 615,000 received. The invoice still reads 645,000. Nothing on the document changes.

You can produce this layout without signing up at the invoice generator, or pick from the template library. Billify has eleven A4 invoice templates, three of which are free.