Yvonne Afolabi, a tax expert, said the increase in income tax paid largely reflected improved profitability amongst the firms, noting that the standard 30 percent corporate income tax rate remained unchanged from 2025.<\/p>\n
The Nigeria Tax Act 2025, which took effect on January 1, 2026, introduced changes to corporate taxation, including a consolidated 4 percent development levy and a minimum effective tax rate for qualifying companies.\n<\/p>\n
The development levy replaces several separate charges, including the Tertiary Education Tax, NITDA levy, NASENI levy and Police Trust Fund levy, with a single charge. The reform is designed to streamline the tax system while shifting a greater share of the tax burden towards larger and more profitable businesses, easing the burden on smaller firms and low income earners.\n<\/p>\n
Afolabi added that while the increase in payments may suggest stronger corporate tax contributions among large companies, it also highlights the limitations of Nigeria\u2019s narrow tax base, rather than a significant expansion in the number of businesses contributing to government revenue.\n<\/p>\n
The analysis covering companies on the NGX 30 shows that companies in the oil and gas sector accounted for the largest share of income taxes paid by the firms, followed by the banks and financial services sector, while telecommunications and industrial goods sector also made notable contributions.\n<\/p>\n
Aradel Holdings emerges as the highest taxpayer<\/h3>\n
Aradel Holdings recorded the highest income tax payment among the companies analysed, paying N690.32 billion in the nine months to September 2026, compared with N40 billion in the corresponding period of 2025.<\/p>\n
Its profit before tax also increased by 154.32 percent to N764.71 billion from N300.68 billion in the same period last year.\n<\/p>\n
Read also:\u00a0PAYE is not personal income tax \u2014 Why filing still matters in Nigeria<\/a><\/strong>\n<\/p>\n Adegbite Falade, chief operating officer of Aradel Holdings, said the increase reflected higher applicable petroleum tax rates under the old petroleum tax regime, to which the newly consolidated ND Western and Renaissance operations are subject, compared with the rates under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).\n<\/p>\n Seplat Energy\u2019s income tax payments rose by 46.12 percent to N685.76 billion in the nine months of 2026, from N469.33 billion in the corresponding period of 2025.\n<\/p>\n Its profit before tax increased by 52.75 percent to N1,342.70 billion from N878.99 billion, reflecting stronger earnings during the period.<\/p>\n The increase in pre-tax profits and taxable earnings contributed to the higher tax payments, although the company\u2019s petroleum fiscal obligations also influenced its overall tax position.\n<\/p>\n GTCO paid N349.38 billion in income taxes in the nine months to September 2026, representing a 41.42 percent increase from N247.05 billion paid in the corresponding period of 2025.\n<\/p>\n However, its profit before tax declined by 2.32 percent to N879.90 billion from N900.80 billion in the same period last year, indicating that higher income tax payments did not necessarily correspond with an increase in pre-tax earnings.\n<\/p>\n Ecobank paid N331.59 billion in income taxes in the first nine months of 2026, up 11.70 percent from N296.86 billion in the corresponding period of 2025.\n<\/p>\n Read also:\u00a0Falling Company Income Tax exposes pressure on Nigerian businesses as VAT increases<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n MTN Nigeria\u2019s income tax payments surged by 1,270.58 percent to N295.36 billion in the nine months of 2026, from N21.55 billion in the corresponding period of 2025.\n<\/p>\n The increase came alongside a 59.40 percent rise in profit before tax to N1,795.60 billion from N1,126.40 billion, reflecting stronger earnings during the period.\n<\/p>\n The increase in tax contributions also highlights the potential of Nigeria\u2019s telecommunications industry to support public finances as the government seeks to diversify revenue away from its traditional dependence on oil.\n<\/p>\n Beyond income taxes, telecommunications operators contribute to government revenue through value-added tax, regulatory charges, spectrum fees and other statutory obligations.\n<\/p>\n Modupe Kadri, chief financial officer of MTN Nigeria, said the increase in actual income tax paid was primarily driven by higher taxable profits and the normalisation of temporary differences that had reduced cash tax outflows in the previous year.<\/p>\n Oil and gas, banking account for 79 percent of income tax paid by 23 NGX firms\n<\/p>\n In all, out of the 23 companies analyzed, oil and gas companies accounted for N1,376.08 billion, representing 40.33 percent of the total income taxes paid in the nine months of 2026.\n<\/p>\n Read also:\u00a0Eight organisations exempt from Companies Income Tax in Nigeria<\/a><\/strong>\n<\/p>\n The banking and financial services sector followed with N1,322.77 billion, representing 38.77 percent, while telecommunications companies contributed N295.36 billion, which is 8.66 percent.\n<\/p>\n Industrial goods companies accounted for N258.73 billion, representing 7.58 percent of the total, while consumer goods companies paid N98.22 billion, or 2.88 percent.<\/p>\n Agricultural companies contributed N55.19 billion, representing 1.62 percent, while hospitality and power companies accounted for N4.66 billion and N1.01 billion, respectively.<\/p>\n Source: <\/p>\n Nigeria\u2019s biggest firms paid N3.412 trillion in income taxes in the nine months to September 2026, up 73.31 percent from N1.968 trillion paid in the same period in 2025, before… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Seplat<\/h3>\n
GTCO<\/h3>\n
ECOBANK<\/h3>\n
MTN<\/h3>\n
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