Invoicing international clients from Nigeria

Billing currency and settlement currency

These are separate. The billing currency is the one the debt is denominated in. The settlement currency is the one that actually lands in an account you control. They are often not the same, and the invoice should not leave the reader to guess.

Write the currency as a three-letter code, not a symbol. The dollar sign is used by more than a dozen countries. USD 2,000.00 is unambiguous. So is NGN 2,000,000.00. Put the code in the total line, not only in a footnote.

• State the billing currency next to every money figure on the invoice.
• If payment will be made in a different currency, say so and say how the amount is derived.
• Do not mix currencies in the same column of a line-item table.
• If the client asked for a naira figure for their own approval process, show it as a separate labelled line, not as the total due.

Exchange-rate wording

If the invoice is denominated in a foreign currency but converted at some point, the conversion needs a stated rule. Otherwise the rate applied is whoever's rate was convenient, and the shortfall is yours.

Pick one of these and write it on the invoice in plain words.

• The debt is in the foreign currency and settlement is in the foreign currency. Simplest. Any conversion is your business, after receipt.
• The debt is in the foreign currency, converted at the rate on the date the payment is made. The client carries the movement between invoice and payment. Name the source of the rate.
• The debt is in the foreign currency, converted at a rate fixed and stated on the invoice. You carry the movement. Only do this on short terms.
• The debt is in naira and the foreign currency figure is shown for the client's information only. State clearly which figure is the amount due.

Whichever you choose, name the rate source and the date it is taken from. "Converted at the rate published by our bank on the date of payment" is enforceable in a conversation. "At the prevailing rate" is not.

Bank charges

An international transfer can pass through a sending bank, one or more intermediary banks, and a receiving bank. Each can take a cut. If the invoice is silent, the deductions come out of your money and the client will tell you, correctly, that they sent the full amount.

Put one line on the invoice that assigns the cost. The common wording is that all bank charges, including intermediary charges, are for the payer's account, and that the amount received must equal the invoice total. That way a shortfall is a shortfall, and you can ask for the difference.

• State who bears sending, intermediary and receiving charges.
• Give the full set of details the client's bank will ask for, so the payment is not returned or delayed.
• Expect a foreign payment to take days, not hours. Set the due date accordingly.
• Reconcile the amount received against the invoice total, and query a shortfall immediately.

A shortfall queried the same week is usually recoverable. A shortfall noticed at year end is not.

What to put on an invoice to a foreign company

A finance team abroad has no way of recognising a Nigerian supplier. Everything they need to create a vendor record and release a payment has to be on the page.

• Your registered business name exactly as on your CAC certificate, and your RC or business name registration number.
• Your Taxpayer Identification Number. See TIN and CAC details on your invoice.
• Your full address including the country. "Abuja" alone is not an address to someone in Berlin.
• The country written out. Nigeria, not NG.
• A unique invoice number and the date, with the month as a word. 09/07/2026 reads as two different dates depending on where the reader sits. "9 July 2026" does not.
• The client's full registered name, address and country, plus any tax or company number they have given you.
• Their purchase order or reference, if they issued one.
• The billing currency as a code, on every figure.
• The exchange-rate rule and the bank charges rule.
• Full payment instructions, including the account name matching the invoice.
• A named contact and a phone number in international format.

Write the amount in words as well as figures on larger invoices. It removes any question about a decimal separator, which is a comma in some countries and a point in others.

VAT on exported services

Nigerian VAT is 7.5% and is added on top of the price. The question for an invoice going abroad is whether it applies at all.

Exported services are classified as a zero-rated item, which means no VAT is charged on them, and input VAT incurred in generating income from exported services can still be recovered. That is the position stated in the reference listed at the foot of this page.

Two practical points hold either way. Zero rated is not the same as outside the scope of VAT, and it is not the same as exempt: the difference decides whether you can recover your input VAT. And whichever treatment applies, state it on the invoice so the client is not left wondering why there is no VAT line. Fuller detail on presentation is in VAT on invoices in Nigeria.

A short checklist

1. 01Decide the billing currency and write it as a code on every figure.
2. 02Decide who carries exchange-rate movement, and write the rule on the invoice.
3. 03Assign bank charges explicitly to the payer.
4. 04Write the date with the month as a word.
5. 05Put your registered name, RC number, TIN, full address and country on the document.
6. 06Settle the VAT treatment before you send, not after.
7. 07Set a due date that allows for the transfer time.
8. 08Reconcile what arrived against what was invoiced, and query any shortfall that week.

If you also invoice Nigerian companies, remember that they will deduct withholding tax from what they pay you, which is a separate matter from anything on this page. See withholding tax on invoices in Nigeria.

You can lay out an invoice with these fields at the free invoice generator, which needs no signup, or from the template library. Billify has eleven A4 invoice templates, three of which are free, and puts your logo and brand details on each. Collection through Billify is naira only, through Kora Pay.