Invoice Template for Event Centres and Caterers in Nigeria

Which law your 2026 invoice is issued under

Invoices dated from 1 January 2026 are issued under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 and the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025. The old VAT Act ceased to apply after 31 December 2025. The rate did not change: VAT is still 7.5 percent on hall hire, catering and decor services.

Update the wording on your template if it still quotes the old Act or FIRS. The collector is now the Nigeria Revenue Service, and a company client's auditors will notice an outdated reference before they notice anything else.

What your invoice must show in Nigeria

What a company client expects to see

Put your business name, address and Tax Identification Number at the top, and the client's registered name, address and TIN below it. Add the purchase order number if they gave you one; many Abuja and Lagos companies will not pay an invoice without it. Then the event date and venue, an invoice number from your own continuous series, and the invoice date.

List every service on its own line: hall hire, buffet per head with the number actually served, drinks, audio-visual equipment, ushers and security. Show the subtotal, VAT at 7.5 percent, the total, any deposit already paid with its date, and the balance due with your bank details.

Company end-of-year party invoice, Abuja

Friday end-of-year dinner for 150 staff of a telecoms contractor at an event centre in Wuse 2, Abuja, invoiced to the company after the event.

• 50% deposit paid by transfer on booking is deducted from the total.
• Purchase order number and the client's TIN are printed in the header.
• If you are in an NRS e-invoicing phase, issue the tax invoice through the approved platform.
• Prices are illustrative for 2026.

Walking through the Abuja invoice

The Wuse 2 dinner on this page is a typical corporate job. The company paid half on booking by transfer from its corporate account, and the invoice deducts that amount with its date and reference, so the finance officer can match it without calling you. The buffet line shows 150 guests served, which was the head count signed by the company's HR officer on the night, not the 170 originally discussed.

Every line carries VAT at 7.5 percent, because hall hire, food service, AV and security are all standard-rated services supplied by one VAT-registered event centre. If the company had brought its own caterer, that caterer would invoice the food separately and your invoice would show only the hall and the services you supplied.

Input VAT is now worth collecting properly

Under the old rules, most VAT a service business paid on its own purchases ended up as a cost. BDO's summary of the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 says service providers can now offset input VAT against the VAT they collect. For an event centre that buys diesel, table linen, sound equipment and repairs from VAT-registered suppliers, that can be a large sum over a year.

The catch is paperwork. Keep your suppliers' valid VAT invoices, check their TINs, and file them against the month. An invoice from a diesel vendor with no TIN on it will not help you.

E-invoicing: find out which phase you are in

NRS runs the Merchant Buyer Solution, a national e-invoicing platform that validates invoices and connects sellers and buyers. Reports describe large taxpayers moving to mandatory use in November 2025, with medium and small VAT-registered businesses expected from 1 January 2026, using standard electronic invoice formats sent directly or through accredited access point providers. BDO separately describes an electronic fiscal system starting with businesses turning over ₦5 billion or more.

Because the phasing is still being settled, confirm with NRS or your tax adviser whether your invoices must pass through the platform. If they must, the version your client receives needs to come from the approved system, and your Excel or Venura invoice becomes the working copy behind it.

Lagos venues: the consumption tax question

In Lagos, the Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption Law requires hotels, restaurants and event centres to collect a 5 percent consumption tax and remit it to LIRS by the 20th of the following month. Businesses have argued for years that it duplicates VAT, and the courts have been asked to decide. If you charge it, put it on its own line with its name and rate, below VAT, so a corporate client can see exactly what each tax is.

If you are too small to charge VAT

Small businesses below the VAT threshold should not add VAT to their invoices. Reports say the threshold moved to ₦50 million of turnover, while some commentators read the small-company definition in the Acts at ₦100 million. Until your adviser confirms your position in writing, keep your turnover records monthly so you know when you cross the line.

Your invoice still needs a number, a date, both parties' details, the services and the amount. A clean invoice is what gets a company to pay a small caterer on time.

Getting paid by Nigerian companies

Large companies often pay 30 to 60 days after invoice and may deduct withholding tax before paying you, then send a credit note or receipt for the amount withheld. Ask up front whether they deduct, at what rate, and how they send the evidence, because you will need it to claim the credit against your own income tax. Put your payment terms on the invoice, and send it within two days of the event while the contact who booked you is still around.

Use a reference the client will recognise, such as the event name and date, in the transfer narration. It makes matching the payment to your invoice far easier when three companies pay you in the same week of December.

Follow up politely at 30 days with the invoice number, the purchase order and a copy of the signed head-count sheet attached. Most late payments in December are caused by a missing document, not an unwilling client.

Invoice questions from Nigeria