IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/jotaed/023636.html

The AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade and the Challenge of Taxation: Problems and Prospects for Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen Owie ESE

    (Essex Law School and EUCLID University owie@euclidfaculty.net)

Abstract

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Protocol on Digital Trade creates a continental legal framework for digitally enabled commerce, but it also sharpens a central fiscal question for African states: how to tax value created in dematerialised markets without undermining market integration. Using Nigeria as a case study, this article examines the interaction between digital trade liberalisation, domestic revenue mobilisation, and emerging global tax norms. It argues that Nigeria’s 2025 tax reform package – the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 and the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 – marks a decisive turn towards digital fiscal sovereignty through three linked moves: expansion of nexus rules beyond physical presence, redesign of value added tax (VAT) collection around platforms and non-resident suppliers, and deployment of technology-backed compliance tools, including fiscalisation and reporting obligations for virtual asset service providers. At the same time, Nigeria’s adoption of a 15 per cent minimum effective tax rule places it within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Group of Twenty (OECD/G20) global minimum tax project. This matters because differences in domestic tax rules shape the conditions under which digital firms operate across African markets, making fiscal design an emerging determinant of continental integration. The article’s novel contribution is to show that, within the AfCFTA, taxation is no longer a peripheral domestic matter but a constitutive element of digital market design. Unless AfCFTA implementation is matched by a coordinated continental approach to internal taxes on digital supplies, digital VAT administration, platform reporting, and information exchange, the result may be regulatory fragmentation rather than integration. It concludes by proposing an AfCFTA-consistent pathway that reconciles fiscal sovereignty, non-discrimination, administrative feasibility, and sustainable development

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Owie ESE, 2026. "The AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade and the Challenge of Taxation: Problems and Prospects for Nigeria," Journal of Taxation and Economic Development, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, vol. 25(1), pages 31-46.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:jotaed:023636
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://jted.citn.org/home/journalvolume/28
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://jted.citn.org/home/journalvolume/28
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • K34 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Tax Law
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:jotaed:023636. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Akanbi Ademola Daniel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/citnnea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.