The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday said the country generated N2.42 trillion as Value Added Tax (VAT) in the first quarter of the year.
The bureau disclosed this in its “Sectoral Distribution of Value Added Tax” report for Q1 2026, released Friday.
The NBS said the figure represents an increase of 9.98 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis from N2.20 trillion in Q4 2025.
Of the total VAT collected, the statistics office said, local payments stood at N1.11 trillion, foreign VAT payments were N830.47 billion, while import VAT contributed N477.55 billion during the quarter.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the NBS said, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods and services producing activities of households for own use recorded the highest growth rate with 74.36 per cent; followed by Arts, entertainment and recreation with 20.91 per cent; and Manufacturing with 12.82 per cent.
On the other hand, it said, education had the lowest growth rate with –31.96 per cent, followed by public administration and defence, compulsory social security with –31.38 per cent, and activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies with –29.89 per cent.
In terms of sectoral shares, the report said the activities with the largest shares in Q1 2026 were manufacturing with 29.75 per cent; information and communication with 20.61 per cent; and mining and quarrying with 12.32 per cent.
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Conversely, it said activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods-and-services-producing activities of households for own use recorded the lowest share with 0.01 per cent.
This, it said, was followed by Activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies; and Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities with 0.02 per cent and 0.06 per cent, respectively.
However, on a year-on-year basis, the bureau said VAT collections in Q1 2026 increased by 17.06 per cent from Q1 2025.
Value Added Tax (VAT) is a consumption tax managed by the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), previously known as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
Introduced in 1993 via VAT Act No. 102, it replaced Sales Tax, which had been operational since 1986. Initially set at 5 per cent, VAT was bumped to 7.5 per cent in January 2020 after the late President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Finance Act 2020 into law.
