Foreign company income tax payments outperformed domestic collections in the third quarter of 2025, driving total Company Income Tax (CIT) revenue to ₦2.96 trillion.
A review of the Company Income Tax (Q3 2025) report released on Wednesday, March 4, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.
According to the data, of the ₦2.96 trillion generated in Q3 2025, foreign CIT payments accounted for ₦1.75 trillion, significantly higher than the ₦1.21 trillion collected from domestic companies.
It showed that the foreign component represents the naira equivalent of CIT paid in foreign currency.
Overall, CIT revenue rose sharply year-on-year, increasing by 67.19 per cent compared to collections in the third quarter of 2024.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the revenue also recorded moderate growth, rising by 6.55 per cent from ₦2.78 trillion in Q2 2025 to ₦2.96 trillion in Q3 2025.
Manufacturing emerged biggest contributor
Pinnacle Daily’s analysis of the report, sector-by-sector, revealed that manufacturing emerged as the biggest contributor to total CIT revenue in Q3, accounting for 22.43 per cent of collections.
Mining and quarrying followed closely with 20.24 per cent, while financial and insurance activities contributed 17.11 per cent, making it the third-largest source of tax revenue during the quarter.
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At the lower end of the spectrum, activities of households as employers recorded the least share at just 0.003 per cent.
Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities contributed 0.04 per cent, while activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies accounted for 0.07 per cent of total collections.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, arts, entertainment and recreation recorded the strongest growth, with tax payments rising by 41.98 per cent.
Accommodation and food service activities followed with a 37.11 per cent increase, while mining and quarrying grew by 15.36 per cent.
Financial, Insurance Record sharp Decline
However, several sectors recorded sharp declines within the same period, including activities of households, as employers dropped by 83.88 per cent.
Financial and insurance activities fell by 79.72 per cent, and construction declined by 66.52 per cent.
Despite the steep quarter-on-quarter contraction of 79.72 per cent in financial and insurance activities, the sector still ranked as the third-highest contributor to overall CIT revenue, accounting for 17.11 per cent of total collections in the review quarter.
The NBS data, however, do not provide details on the specific factors responsible for the sharp decline in the sector’s growth rate.
Pinnacle Daily reports that Nigeria has reformed its tax regime under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025, which took effect on January 1, 2026.
The CIT rate remains 30 per cent for medium and large companies, while small firms with an annual turnover of about ₦100 million or less continue to enjoy a 0 per cent rate.
A 15 per cent minimum effective tax now applies to large domestic and multinational firms where incentives would otherwise lower their tax liability.
The law also introduces a separate 4 per cent development levy on assessable profits, raising the overall tax burden beyond the base 30 per cent rate for affected companies.
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X
