Tax Data Sovereignty: Why the FIRS–France Deal Must Be Halted Now

The Federal Inland Revenue Service’s newly signed Memorandum of Understanding with France’s Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (DGFiP) has been presented as a step toward improving Nigeria’s tax administration. But behind the official statements lies a troubling reality: this agreement risks placing Nigeria’s sovereign tax infrastructure within the influence of a foreign government. If allowed to stand, it may become one of the most hazardous strategic concessions Nigeria has made in recent years.

This concern has long been raised by policy experts, including Dr. Segun Adebayo, Executive Director of the Centre for African Policy Research & Advocacy (CAfPRA), who has consistently warned that Nigeria’s tax data should be treated as a national security asset.

During a public hearing on tax reforms in March 2025, Adebayo delivered a keynote address titled “Protecting Our Tax Sovereignty”. He argued that Nigeria’s rise as a fintech powerhouse — home to PayStack, Flutterwave, Interswitch, PiggyVest, Bamboo, and NIBSS — makes its financial and tax data one of its most strategic national resources. “Taxpayer data is national power,” he warned. “Allowing foreign control over this data is a threat to national security.”

Adebayo repeated this caution later that month in the Senate Pressroom, where he told journalists that giving foreign actors access to Nigeria’s tax system amounts to “handing the keys to your house and bedroom to a visitor.” His position was clear: no nation that values its independence should entrust its tax backbone to a foreign government.

His advocacy also influenced ongoing engagements with Senator Ned Munir Nwoko on strengthening the Nigerian Data Protection Act (Amendment) Bill. Adebayo proposed several amendments aimed at protecting Nigeria’s financial and GPS data by classifying them as sensitive personal data and restricting foreign involvement in the processing of tax information. Senator Nwoko welcomed these recommendations and instructed his team to study them further.

However, the tax reform bills ultimately passed without including any of these critical safeguards. In that vacuum, the FIRS–France MoU quietly emerged — without broad debate, without legislative scrutiny, and without the protection of data-sovereignty provisions that would have prevented such an agreement.

Why Experts Consider the FIRS–France MoU a National Security Risk

According to Dr. Adebayo and other data-sovereignty advocates, the risks extend far beyond technology cooperation.

1. Loss of Economic Autonomy

A country that outsources tax data management gives foreign powers visibility into its economic vulnerabilities and strengths — insight that can easily translate into leverage.

2. Exposure to Digital Surveillance

Foreign-developed tax systems provide built-in pathways for monitoring, espionage, and digital exploitation. Modern economic colonization often begins with data, not soldiers.

3. Geopolitical Dependence

With access to Nigeria’s tax ecosystem, France could gain an upper hand in trade, loans, and diplomatic negotiations. No serious sovereign state gives another nation such influence.

Adebayo and other observers also question why Nigeria bypassed its own digital innovators. As he asked during a House of Assembly address nine months ago: Why choose a foreign government agency over homegrown giants like Flutterwave, PayStack, NIBSS, Interswitch, and Bamboo — companies already trusted with billions of dollars in financial transactions across Africa?

Safeguards That Should Have Been Implemented

In his submission to Senator Nwoko earlier this year, Adebayo outlined precise amendments that would have prevented the current predicament:

• Classifying tax and financial records as sensitive personal data under the NDPA.
• Requiring at least 80% Nigerian ownership for any entity processing tax data.
• Mandating heightened security and local ownership requirements.
• Disclosing nationality and ownership of all subcontractors handling tax information.
• Extending cross-border data restrictions to foreign-owned entities operating within Nigeria.
• Empowering the Data Protection Commission to set Nigerian-ownership thresholds for data processors.

If adopted, these safeguards would have made the FIRS–France partnership impossible without National Assembly approval.

A Call for Immediate Action

Dr. Adebayo insists — as he did earlier this year — that Nigeria must act swiftly and decisively:

1. All digital tax reforms must remain 100% under Nigerian control.
2. No foreign entity should access Nigeria’s tax data, financial transactions, or national digital records.
3. Nigerian institutions — NIBSS, PayStack, Flutterwave, Interswitch, Bamboo, and others — must build and operate Nigeria’s tax infrastructure.
4. The FIRS–France MoU and all similar arrangements must be terminated immediately.
5. The National Assembly must urgently pass data-sovereignty amendments before the Nigeria Revenue Service becomes fully operational in January 2026.

Adebayo warns that tax data is the heartbeat of Nigeria’s economy. No nation surrenders its heartbeat and expects to remain sovereign.

The National Assembly, the Presidency, and all patriotic Nigerians must now rise to safeguard the nation’s digital and economic future. Nigeria’s sovereignty is not a commodity — and it cannot be outsourced.