Not everything is charged Nigeria's standard 7.5% VAT. Under NTA 2025 §§186-187, a defined list of goods and services — basic food, medicine, education, exports, and more — is charged VAT at 0% instead. A grocery, pharmacy, school, or exporter that doesn't apply this gets a wrong, too-high VAT figure. TaxLane's VAT calculator has a zero-rated/exempt checkbox for exactly this — this guide is the full category list behind it.
Basic food items are zero-rated, but it's a closed, enumerated list (NTA 2025 §189), not an open "basic vs. processed" test: honey; white and brown bread; named cereals, cooking oils (culinary-grade, fragrance-free only), and culinary herbs; fish; named flours and fruits; raw meats and poultry eggs; milk; named nuts, pulses, and tubers; salt (excluding industrial salt); named vegetables; and water (excluding sparkling/flavoured water, and excluding water sold in a restaurant, hotel, café, lounge, canteen, or by a caterer). Most items stay zero-rated raw, frozen, or semi-processed — processing degree on its own doesn't disqualify them.
Also zero-rated: fertilisers; locally produced agricultural chemicals, veterinary medicine, and animal feed; live cattle, goats, sheep, and poultry; and agricultural seeds and seedlings.
Medical and pharmaceutical products (including medicinal herbal products), medical services, and medical equipment are zero-rated — except cosmetology, spa, gymnasium, or similar services and devices. There's no general elective-vs-medically-necessary test: an elective but non-cosmetic procedure still qualifies, a cosmetic one doesn't.
Educational books and materials, and tuition from nursery through tertiary level, are zero-rated with no public-vs-private carve-out — private institutions are covered on the same terms as public ones.
Exported goods (excluding oil/gas), exported services, and exported incorporeal property are all zero-rated, as are electric vehicles and EV assembly parts, and GENCO-to-National-Grid/NBET and TCN-to-DISCO wholesale electricity supply.
A separate, shorter list (NTA 2025 §186) is fully exempt rather than zero-rated — oil/gas exports, humanitarian donor-funded project goods, baby products, locally manufactured sanitary towels/pads/tampons, agricultural tractors and equipment, land or buildings, money or securities, assistive devices (hearing aids, wheelchairs, braille materials), and several other narrower categories. The difference between the two lists is a seller-side filing mechanic this "calculate, don't file" tool doesn't need to expose — both produce the same buyer-facing number, ₦0 VAT on the line, which is what TaxLane's single zero-rated checkbox applies either way.
No. Sugar isn't on the closed, enumerated list of basic food items in NTA 2025 §189 — it's taxed at the standard 7.5% rate like any other non-listed item.
Not when it's sold as a restaurant, hotel, café, lounge, or canteen line item, or by a caterer — that water is taxed at the standard rate. Bottled water sold on its own (e.g. a shop or supermarket) is zero-rated; sparkling or flavoured water never qualifies either way.
The Eleventh Schedule's Minister-discretion tranche — petroleum products as defined, renewable-energy equipment, CNG, LPG, and other gaseous hydrocarbons, plus CNG/LPG conversion kits and services — isn't on this list. Its VAT treatment depends on a Ministerial order rather than being a fixed rule, so it's not something a calculator can encode as "always 0%" today.
No — basic food, medicine, education, exports, and several other categories are zero-rated or exempt under NTA 2025 §§186-187.
Check the zero-rated/exempt box on a real amount or invoice line with TaxLane's VAT calculator.
No. Sugar isn't on the closed, enumerated list of basic food items in NTA 2025 §189 — it's taxed at the standard 7.5% rate like any other non-listed item.
Not when it's sold as a restaurant, hotel, café, lounge, or canteen line item, or by a caterer — that water is taxed at the standard rate. Bottled water sold on its own (e.g. a shop or supermarket) is zero-rated; sparkling or flavoured water never qualifies either way.
No — basic food, medicine, education, exports, and several other categories are zero-rated or exempt under NTA 2025 §§186-187.
No — for guidance only, not tax advice.