The Federal Government has authorised Upperlink Limited as a system integrator for the country’s national electronic invoicing platform, positioning the indigenous technology company at the centre of a sweeping tax digitisation programme aimed at tightening compliance, improving transparency and modernising revenue administration.
The company disclosed the approval on Thursday in a statement, saying the authorisation was granted under the Nigeria Revenue Service’s electronic invoicing framework as the government moves ahead with the phased implementation of mandatory e-invoicing for businesses across the country.
The approval enables Upperlink to connect organisations to the Nigeria Revenue Service Merchant Buyer Solution framework, which is expected to support real-time invoice validation, secure invoice transmission and digital tax reporting as authorities intensify efforts to automate tax processes and expand revenue collection.
The rollout forms part of broader reforms by the Federal Government to improve fiscal efficiency and reduce leakages in Africa’s largest economy, where policymakers have increasingly turned to technology-driven compliance systems amid pressure to raise non-oil revenue.
Under the framework, businesses will be required to integrate their accounting and invoicing systems with government-approved platforms for the real-time issuance and validation of invoices. The implementation is expected to occur in phases based on company turnover thresholds, beginning with large taxpayers before extending to medium-sized and smaller businesses.
The Managing Director of Upperlink Limited, Mr Olusegun Akano, said the approval reflected the company’s experience in enterprise technology infrastructure and regulated payment systems.
“We have delivered secure, scalable and easy-to-use platforms for businesses, government institutions and financial service providers across Nigeria,” Akano said in the statement.
He added that the company’s credentials as a licensed payment solution service provider under the Central Bank of Nigeria framework, alongside its role as an aggregator to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, strengthened its capacity to support the large-scale transaction processing and reconciliation demands expected under the e-invoicing regime.
Akano said the company’s infrastructure already powers payment aggregation across major card schemes and account-to-account channels through its Upperlink Paygate solution, while its treasury management systems are used by large corporations and subnational governments.
The executive also pointed to the company’s participation in public-sector programmes, including the Federal Government-backed AGILE Project supported by the World Bank, where it provided digital registration, identity capture and payment support systems for beneficiaries in partnership with financial institutions.
The Chief Marketing Officer of Upperlink Limited, Mr Opeyemi Oni, said the approval will help businesses transition into the new compliance framework with reduced operational friction.
“The authorisation reinforces our commitment to helping Nigerian businesses comply seamlessly with the new e-invoicing framework while improving transparency and trusted digital record keeping across the ecosystem,” Oni said.
Nigeria’s e-invoicing programme is expected to significantly reshape how businesses document and report transactions, particularly as regulators seek more accurate tax visibility across sectors of the economy.
Authorities have indicated that companies with annual turnover above N5bn will be onboarded first, followed by firms generating between N1bn and N5bn in annual revenue before the programme expands to smaller businesses.
As an authorised system integrator, Upperlink Limited said it would provide deployment, integration and support services for organisations seeking to connect existing enterprise resource planning systems and accounting platforms to the national e-invoicing infrastructure.
The company said it also plans to provide middleware and portal-based solutions for firms without existing enterprise systems, as Nigeria accelerates the nationwide expansion of mandatory digital invoicing.
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