Telecom
Nigeria Cannot Enforce Tax against Facebook, Others—Expert
Nigeria will find it impossible to place taxes on the transactions of foreign tech companies like Netflix, Facebook, Google, Youtube and other virtual firms without foreign help, Ikemesit Effiong, head of Research at SBM Intelligence, has said.
It will be recalled that the federal government announced its intent to tax OTT’s in the Finance act the president signed earlier in the year.
According to Saharareporters, the legal document, which reviewed the countries tax policies, included any business that “transmits, emits, or receives signals, sounds messages, images or data of any kind by cable, radio, electromagnetic systems or any other electronic or wireless apparatus to Nigeria in respect of any activity including electronic commerce, application store, high-frequency trading, electronic storage, online adverts, participative network platform, online payments and so on, to the extent that the company has a significant economic presence in Nigeria and profit can be attributable to such activity.”
Effiong told SaharaReporters that it would be difficult for the federal government to calculate the Nigerian derived earnings of these companies’ activities.
He is sceptical about how the government will, for example, find out the volume of activities engaged in by Nigeria’s estimated 20m Facebook users and how much each transaction yielded in revenue.
He said countries across the world were discussing how to tax over the top technologies (OTT’s) and virtual firms that do not have end-user telecommunication infrastructure and share the profit.
“The only way I see Nigeria being able to negotiate a tax regime (OTT) will be for them to collaborate with our European and American partners,” he said.
“I can’t think of any African economy – South Africa included– that can do this on their own. Even global powers like the US and the EU are struggling with this.”
Zainab Ahmed, minister for finance, gave clarity on how the government plans to implement the new tax regime by issuing the Companies Income Tax (Significant Economic Presence) Order. The finance minister is also empowered by the law to determine who a SEP is.
In the letter of the order, the first guiding principle in identifying who a SEP is will be to check if the company has sustained interaction with customers in Nigeria or agents of foreign entities based in Nigeria and have an annual earning in any currency whose value comes up to N25m or more.
Firms that fall into this category have been asked by the order to customize their platforms to enable them to receive payment in naira for taxable reasons.
“A foreign entity providing technical services such as training, advertising, supply of personnel, professional, management or consultancy services shall have a SEP in Nigeria in any accounting year if it earns any income or receives any payment from a person resident in Nigeria or a fixed base or agent of a foreign entity in Nigeria,” the act reads.
Education service providers are exempted though. Companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google, that make as much money off traffic as they do from promoted posts, would be difficult to tax, experts believe.
Most of these OTT firms do not have offices in Nigeria.
Those who do only maintain a representational presence and Effiong thinks this is the flaw in the plan.
“If Facebook says we had 17m unique visits, how are you as a country going to quantify and verify it?” he wondered.
Explaining that every taxpaying entity in the country has to open their books to the federal or state revenue boards, Effiong said OTTs have to largely comply, they have to be transparent about the number of Nigerian users they have, the ads those users clicked on, what the monetary cost of those ads was… for tax authorities to be able to assess them.”
Save for a Chinese/Iranian/Russian mode of internet monitoring, the lawyer said it would be impossible for the government to validate the genuineness of the data it is given.
Kenya is another African country that has attempted to levy an OTT. Its revenue authority said in a recent draft regulation that foreign companies offering digital services should register in the country to pay value-added tax or get a tax representative.
Outside Africa, France has been the most desperate to begin charging virtual firms for the number of undeclared profits they earn across the world.
In January, Macron’s government said it was going to go ahead of the EU conversation on the matter to collect three per cent of the global annual earnings of these firms.
That move was swiftly countered by the Trump administration, who threatened to massively heighten excise duties on goods coming out of France. Since then, Coronavirus has stalled the possibility of a joint tax regime for over-the-top technologies in the European Union.
Nigeria and Kenya are chasing the monies that could come from this new pull of cash though. It could be vital funding that would ease the recession fears in Africa’s largest economy.
MTN Foundation has been spotlighted as a model for private sector-driven healthcare development in Nigeria, following commendations at the 6th Arthur Mbanefo Lecture held at the University of Lagos, Akoka.
Themed “A Healthy Nation is a Wealthy Nation: The Role of Impact Investments and Sustainable Financing in Nigeria,” the lecture featured Dr. Tolulope Adewole, Managing Director of NSIA Advanced Medical Services Limited (MedServe), as keynote speaker.
Dr. Adewole praised the Foundation’s strategic investments, noting that MTN commits 1% of its profit after tax annually to development sectors. “They’ve invested ₦31.75 billion, reaching over 32 million Nigerians. Though only 25% went to health, it accounted for 51% of all lives impacted. That’s catalytic,” he said.
He cited MTN’s dialysis centre programme as a transformative intervention for patients with kidney disease, and highlighted community-focused initiatives like the Y’ello Doctor mobile scheme and ‘What Can We Do Together’ (WCWDT) programme, which revitalised 164 Primary Healthcare Centres, including 44 in 2024 alone.
Executive Director of MTN Foundation, Odunayo Sanya, reflected on the COVID-19 pandemic’s exposure of systemic health vulnerabilities. “When COVID hit, we realised a health emergency is also an economic and social emergency,” she said.
Sanya revealed that of the 52 PHCs remodeled in 2024, only one had clean water. “I’m not a doctor, but I know you can’t live a good life without clean water,” she added, reaffirming the Foundation’s commitment to bridging healthcare gaps in underserved communities.
Hundreds of university students across Africa are set to benefit from a new gamified learning experience on digital rights and inclusion launched by the leading pan-African non-profit organisation, Paradigm Initiative (PIN).
The Digital Rights and Inclusion Board Learning Experience (DRIBLE) is a game developed by Paradigm Initiative with support from the Open Society Foundations (OSF). The custom-designed board game provides young individuals with a fun and engaging entry point into digital rights and inclusion conversations, training sessions and storytelling tools.
The board game aims to build digital literacy, deepen understanding of online safety, and introduce young individuals to the organisation’s tools of impact. Currently being piloted in three universities: University of Lagos, Nigeria, the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) in Nairobi, Kenya and the Dakar American University of Science and Technology (DAUST) in Dakar, Senegal, it will enhance interactions and create a holistic experience.
Speaking at the event launch at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, ‘Gbenga Sesan, Paradigm Initiative’s Executive Director, said: “PIN’s vision is to reach 20 million people through our Digital Inclusion and Digital Rights interventions. From Lagos, to Dakar, to Nairobi.. we will use the vehicle of our new Digital Rights and Inclusion Board Learning Experience (DRIBLE) which entails using gamification, training, multimedia materials, tools and other interventions to connect African youth with digital opportunities and protect their digital rights.”
‘Gbenga gave the keynote address on “Digital inclusion at PIN, our Past, Present and Future” and Nnenna Paul-Ugochukwu, the organisation’s Chief Operating Officer, said the goal of the learning experience would be instrumental in raising awareness of digital rights among the youth, building their capacity to address digital rights and inclusion issues in their communities. Prof. Olunifesi Adekunle Suraj shared a goodwill message with the students and other stakeholders.
Paradigm Initiative, which has been operational since 2007, started in a tiny cybercafe in Ajegunle, Lagos, Nigeria. Today, the organisation has expanded its wings to cover six African countries; Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe, impacting the livelihoods of over 150,000 young Africans.
The launch of DRIBLE builds on the progress the organisation has made over the years in tackling the challenge of digital exclusion across Africa.
Paradigm Initiative’s tools of impact include Ripoti, a platform that enables individuals to report digital rights violations, Ayeta, a platform that provides digital security resources for stakeholders, more so human rights activists, defenders, journalists and other vulnerable groups, and the organisation’s latest short film, Whispers in the Wires.
Targeted at students, PIN rolled out a Campus Tour in the three universities on the continent starting July 15th, 2025.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has intensified its crackdown on fake accounts and spam, announcing it removed over 10 million fake profiles and roughly 500,000 spam accounts in the first half of 2025.
The sweeping purge is part of Meta’s broader effort to combat impersonation, fake engagement, and content duplication, aiming to elevate authentic creators and improve the quality of content across its platforms.
In a blog post, Meta said: “We’re making progress. In the first half of 2025, we took action on around 500,000 accounts engaged in spammy behaviour or fake engagement. We also removed about 10 million profiles impersonating large content producers.”
Meta stressed that accounts which primarily repost or recycle content without meaningful edits will face penalties such as reduced reach and the loss of monetisation tools.
The company also warned that repeatedly sharing unoriginal content — whether videos, photos, or text — undermines the platform’s integrity by crowding out genuine voices and making it harder for new creators to grow.
To support authentic creators, Meta is rolling out new tools that automatically trace reposted content back to its original source. The company says this will help ensure rightful credit and give higher visibility to original posts.
“Pages and profiles that post mostly original content tend to enjoy wider distribution across Facebook. Simply stitching clips together or adding a watermark will no longer count as meaningful editing. Content that provides real value and tells an authentic story is likely to perform better,” Meta explained.
Creators are also being cautioned against uploading content that includes watermarks from other platforms. Such posts could see their reach restricted or lose monetisation privileges altogether.
As part of its latest update, Meta introduced post-level insights on the Professional Dashboard, allowing creators to monitor how individual posts perform. They can also check their Support Home screen to see if their content or earnings are facing restrictions.
In a parallel development, Google’s YouTube updated its monetisation guidelines, stating that content deemed mass-produced or excessively repetitive will no longer qualify for ad revenue. The announcement initially sparked concern among creators, who feared it was a blanket ban on AI-generated content. YouTube later clarified:
“We welcome creators using AI tools to enhance their storytelling, and channels that use AI in their content remain eligible to monetise.”
Both tech giants say these new policies are aimed at raising content standards and safeguarding genuine creators in a crowded and rapidly evolving digital landscape.
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