November 26, (THEWILL) — The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced that Nigeria’s Value Added Tax (VAT) collections reached N2.06 trillion in the second quarter of 2025.
According to the VAT Q2 2025 Report released in Abuja, this amount marks a 0.03% decline compared with the N2.06 trillion recorded in Q1 2025.
The breakdown of the Q2 VAT collections shows:
Local payments accounted for N1.09 trillion.
VAT from foreign payments contributed N459.95 billion.
Import-related VAT amounted to N508.55 billion.
On a year-on-year basis, the N2.06 trillion for Q2 2025 represents a 32.15% increase compared with the same quarter in 2024.
Sectoral Performance & Contribution
The report highlights marked variation across economic sectors:
The sector with the highest quarter-on-quarter growth was real estate, which surged by 155.21%.
Other sectors recording growth include agriculture, forestry and fishing (23.64%) and information & communication (17.75%).
On the downside, human health & social work activities saw a sharp contraction of -68.34%, followed by electricity, gas, steam & air conditioning supply (-45.20%) and water supply/waste management/sewerage (-29.36%).
In terms of overall contributions to VAT receipts for Q2 2025, the top three sectors were:
Manufacturing 27.19% of total VAT collected
Information and Communication — 20.76%
Mining and Quarrying — 15.04%
At the other end, sectors such as households acting as employers, undifferentiated goods and services for households’ own use, extraterritorial organisations, and water/waste management recorded the smallest shares (ranging between 0.005% to 0.03%).
What This Means
The N2.06 trillion VAT for Q2 indicates a fairly robust revenue stream for the government, underscoring growing economic activity across several sectors especially manufacturing, communications, and mining.
The hefty increase over Q2 2024 suggests improved compliance, either through stronger enforcement, broader economic activity, or both.
However, the modest quarter-on-quarter dip and sharp contractions in some sectors (like health and utilities) point to uneven performance across the economy.
The dramatic spike in real estate VAT might reflect a surge in property transactions or related services but could also signal volatility if such gains are not sustained.
For policymakers and investors, these data may influence planning: strong VAT revenues help fund public services and infrastructure; at the same time, contractions in critical sectors such as health and utilities could signal areas needing policy attention or stimulus.
Ogochukwu Onwaeze
