Manufacturers seek single tax assessment and payment system, stronger safeguards against multiple levies….
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has called on the Lagos State Government to become the first state to publish a harmonised tax code aligned with the country’s new tax laws, saying the move would significantly reduce compliance costs for manufacturers.
MAN President, Francis Meshioye, made the call on Thursday at the 55th Annual General Meeting of the association’s Apapa Branch in Lagos.
Meshioye urged the state government to establish a unified system for tax assessment and payment, arguing that such an arrangement would eliminate duplication, uncertainty and multiple demands from government agencies.
He said the 2025 Tax Law provided an opportunity to simplify Nigeria’s tax system, but stressed that deliberate measures were needed to protect manufacturers from overlapping taxes and levies.
“The 2025 Tax Law gives us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset this. The law seeks to harmonise, digitise, and reduce friction. But for it to work for manufacturers, especially those in trade corridors like Apapa, we need deliberate safeguards,” he said.
Meshioye specifically urged Lagos to publish a harmonised tax code that would provide manufacturers with a single assessment authority and payment portal.
“We urge Lagos State to be the first to publish a harmonised tax code aligned with the new law. One entity to assess, one portal to pay. This will cut compliance cost significantly for our members,” he said.
According to him, manufacturers operating in industrial and port corridors such as Apapa continue to face multiple taxes and levies imposed by different levels of government.
He said the situation was compounded by the activities of various agencies along major transportation routes.
“In Apapa, taxation comes from everywhere. A truck moving raw materials from the port to Amuwo Odofin can be stopped by multiple agencies before it gets to the factory gate. That is in addition to corporate tax, VAT, and state levies,” Meshioye said.
He also called for the designation of Apapa, Amuwo and Kirikiri as “No-Tout Zones” to protect legitimate revenue collection and prevent illegal levies imposed by non-state actors along industrial and port corridors.
Meshioye further urged the Lagos State Government to collaborate with the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to introduce a single bill for port-related charges.
He said such an arrangement would prevent manufacturers from paying multiple fees in the course of moving a single container.
The MAN president stressed that the association was not demanding tax exemptions but wanted taxes paid by manufacturers to translate into improved infrastructure and security.
“We are asking that the tax we pay translates to motorable roads, working drainage, and security in our clusters. That is the social contract,” he said.
Meshioye also called on the Joint Revenue Board to ensure that states did not use the new tax regime as an avenue to introduce additional taxes, but instead consolidated and simplified existing obligations.
Speaking separately, he said effective implementation of the new tax laws would broaden the tax base while reducing the burden on businesses that comply with their obligations.
He urged sub-national governments to domesticate and fully implement the new framework to ensure manufacturers benefit from the intended reforms.
According to him, the success of the reforms should ultimately be measured by increased business expansion, investment and employment.
“If it is implemented and you are finding that businesses are expanding, more investment is coming up, and employment level is reduced, then we will have done something,” Meshioye said.
The Chairman of MAN’s Apapa Branch, Raphael Danilola, identified multiple taxation, regulatory bottlenecks, high interest rates, energy costs, insecurity and logistics challenges as major constraints on manufacturing activities.
“Ultimately, our concern is simple: how do we ensure that tax reform strengthens manufacturing competitiveness rather than adds another layer of pressure on businesses already operating in a challenging environment?” Danilola said.
He urged the Lagos State Government to review the mandates of its agencies to eliminate duplication and harmonise national and state environmental regulations in order to lower compliance costs.
Danilola also called for effective implementation of the new tax policies and regular assessment of their impact on state and local government revenues.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Joint Revenue Board, Olusegun Adesokan, said the new tax administration framework had reduced more than 100 taxes to nine unified revenue heads at the sub-national level.
He said the nine revenue heads cover income tax, stamp duty, property tax, road tax, haulage levy, economic development levy, harmonised levy, user charge and daily tickets.
Adesokan added that the framework had abolished roadblocks used for revenue collection along transportation corridors and prohibited cash payments for taxes.
MAN Director-General, Segin Ajayi-Kadir, said the four tax laws that came into effect on January 1, 2026, had the potential to reposition the country’s tax system and support productivity if properly implemented.
He said manufacturers had previously faced between 120 and 160 taxes and levies, describing the burden as excessive.
Ajayi-Kadir said the new framework would limit the number of taxes and levies to nine, noting that 16 of Nigeria’s 36 states had already domesticated the federal tax law.
He said the development would make tax compliance easier and provide businesses with greater certainty in planning their operations.
Ajayi-Kadir stressed that manufacturers were seeking a tax regime that simplified compliance, encouraged productivity and provided an effective mechanism for resolving disputes with revenue authorities.
