Emma Okonji
Digital Assets Coalition (DAC), the industry alliance representing digital-asset participants and operators in Nigeria, has faulted the new guidelines on the taxation of virtual assets, released on Monday August 3, 2026 by the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS).
The coalition said the new guidelines, if implemented, would put Nigeria’s $92 billion virtual asset market, built by young Nigerians at risk, adding that the market is currently the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.
The coalition therefore called on NRS to tax the profit on digital asset transactions and not the movement of digital money from one location to another.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos yesterday, Spokesperson of the Digital Assets Coalition, Mr. Obinna Iwuno, clarified that the coalition welcomed the regulation of virtual assets by the federal government, but also explained that the coalition has objected to the charges on the gross movement of money rather than on any profit earned.
“We support the taxation of virtual assets without qualification. Our concern is with a design choice that taxes the movement of money itself,” Iwuno said.
The coalition, which strongly faulted some parts of the guidelines, raised some concerns about it. The first concern raised by the coalition is on the one per cent withholding tax deducted from the entire value of every sale, even where the seller made a loss, and asked the NRS to recalibrate it in such a way that only the profits should be taxed and not the entire movement of money transacted. Secondly the coalition said the 1.5 per cent stamp duty tax on virtual assets should be removed and charged the same way that stamp duties are charged on physical cash.
The third concern raised is the requirement to remit taxes in tokens, which according to the coalition, is inconsistent with the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, whose Section 39 mandates tax remittances in Nigerian currency and not in virtual money.
According to the coalition, the choice to tax the movement of money itself rather than the profit, falls on a remittance to a student abroad, on a freelancer converting earnings already taxed as income, and on a trader who will lose money through the process. “That is not a tax on profit. It is a toll on participation,” the coalition said.
It further explained that the burden would fall hardest on the young Nigerians who built the market as working infrastructure for global earnings, family remittances, and savings that survive naira volatility. Because young users transact small and often, the levies compound fastest against their pattern of use. They bite even below the N10 million threshold the Nigeria Tax Act itself exempts and within the N800,000 income band taxed at zero, while filing burdens can exceed a student’s entire earnings. The framework is anti-youth in effect, even if not in intent. You cannot tax your way into the future by taxing the people building it, Iwuno said.
According to him, every comparable country has reversed course. He cited the Esya Centre report, which highlighted that India’s one per cent transaction withholding saw regulated exchanges lose 81 per cent of volume within four months, with over 90 per cent of trading moving offshore within a year, while Kenya repealed its three per cent transaction tax in 2025, and Turkey withdrew a similar levy in 2026.
The coalition therefore called on the Nigeria Revenue Service to defer commencement of the implementation of the new guidelines and consult publicly. According to the coalition, NRS must tax real gains rather than movement, collect taxes in naira, protect small earners with a de minimis exemption, retain registration and report in full, and also confirm that tax rates are set only by the National Assembly and not by administrative notices.
“This is not a fight against taxation. It is a request for a design that works for citizens and the revenue service alike. The coalition stands ready to help make a workable framework succeed,” Iwuno added.