Registering for VAT in Nigeria starts with your Tax ID, not a separate form. Everything else follows from that one number.
There is no separate VAT office to visit and no independent VAT registration certificate to apply for on paper. Everything runs through the same digital identity you already use for income tax.
Check whether you must register first
Registration is only compulsory once you make taxable supplies above the small-business turnover exemption. Our guide to who must register and the exemption threshold itself are worth reading before you start, so you are not registering unnecessarily.
Your Tax ID is the starting point
A company's Tax ID comes from its CAC registration number, and an individual's comes from your NIN. Look yours up at taxid.nrs.gov.ng if you are not sure of it.
Every taxable person must register and get a Tax ID, and VAT registration is part of that same duty, not a separate system with its own number.
Where registration happens
Registration itself is done through Rev360 at selfservice.nrs.gov.ng, the same portal used for filing, payment and refund requests. There is no separate paper form to post or a different office to visit for VAT specifically.
What you provide
Alongside your Tax ID, expect to confirm basic details about your business: its registered name, its activity, and the bank details it will use to remit VAT it collects. Our checklist of documents sets these out in full.
What happens after you submit
Rev360 does not hand you a separate VAT certificate to frame. Your existing Tax ID simply gains VAT as one of its active obligations, visible on the portal alongside income tax.
From your next filing period, the 21st day of the following month applies to you, whether or not you made a sale that month. Our guide to nil returns covers what to do in a quiet month.
The cost of registering late
Missing the point at which registration becomes compulsory carries its own penalty, separate from any VAT itself: ₦50,000 for the first month, then ₦25,000 for every month you remain unregistered after that.
That penalty is for registering late. Filing late once you are registered is a separate cost, covered in our piece on tax return late-filing penalties.
A business sometimes only realises it should have registered months earlier, once turnover data is reviewed at year end. Backdating the registration does not erase the gap; the penalty is still measured from the month registration should have happened.
Reviewing turnover against the threshold every quarter, rather than once a year, is the simplest way to avoid discovering the problem this late.
Once you are registered, the VAT monthly return guide covers what comes next, or browse more NRS and Rev360 guides for the rest.