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Nigeria: visas, tax & cost of living

Moving to Nigeria as a remote worker: honest costs, why there is no digital nomad visa, the CERPAC route, tax, healthcare and Lagos life.

Nigeria: visas, tax & cost of living
Your passport

United KingdomNigeria

Your move to Nigeria on a United Kingdom passport

  • VisitFairly easyVisa on arrival, e-visa or travel authorization (ETA)
  • NomadMediumNo nomad visa, other route
  • RelocateMediumResidence with conditions

Visiting

You need an e-visa. Apply online before you travel and carry the approval. It is usually quick, but leave a few days of buffer.

Passport validity:Passport valid for at least six months on arrival.

Heads-up:Since 1 May 2025 the legacy Visa on Arrival has been replaced by an online e-Visa, which most eligible travellers must obtain before departure.

At the border:e-Visa or pre-approval, return ticket, proof of funds and accommodation, plus a valid yellow fever vaccination certificate.

Working remotely

No dedicated nomad visa; the usual route is a standard residence permit.

Tax and residency

You are generally treated as resident, and taxed on worldwide income, if you spend at least 183 days in Nigeria in a 12 month period or have your domicile, habitual abode or main family and economic ties there; non residents are taxed only on Nigeria source income.(estimate)

The UK decides residence with its Statutory Residence Test (days in the UK plus your ties). As a non-resident you are usually taxed only on UK income; where one exists, a double-tax treaty with the destination decides who taxes what.

Practical

Currency:NGN. Cost of living:low.

Healthcare:Public healthcare is limited and uneven, so foreigners should rely on private clinics in Lagos or Abuja and carry comprehensive international health insurance with medical evacuation.

Driving:Carry an International Driving Permit alongside your home licence; roads can be poor and many residents hire a local driver.

Sources: Nigeria Immigration Service - visas · Nigeria e-Visa portal · PwC - Nigeria individual tax residence · US State Department - Nigeria travel information · UK FCDO - Nigeria entry requirements · GOV.UK: tax on foreign income · HMRC: double-taxation treaties

Estimates, not advice. Confirm with the official sources before you act.

Should you move to Nigeria?

Let us be honest from the first line: Nigeria is not a soft landing. It is loud, fast, gloriously alive, and genuinely hard work to live in. But if you want to be inside one of the most energetic markets on the planet, in English, with a startup scene people actually fly in to see, it is worth a serious look.

The magnet is Lagos, and specifically Lagos Island: Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Lekki, where most of the tech, money and remote workers cluster. People call it “Silicon Lagoon” for a reason. Fintech giants like Flutterwave and Paystack grew up here, coworking spaces are full, and the talent pool is huge and hungry. Abuja, the capital, is calmer, greener and safer, but it is administrative rather than entrepreneurial. Port Harcourt is oil country and best skipped by newcomers.

The trade-offs are real and you should not wave them away. The national grid is unreliable, so almost everyone runs a generator or inverter, and “up NEPA” (the joy of the power coming back) is a genuine national in-joke. Security needs respect: petty crime, traffic robberies and, in some regions, kidnapping are real risks, and expats stick to known areas and move carefully after dark. Traffic (“go-slow”) can eat hours of your day. Bureaucracy is slow and often greased. None of this is a reason to stay away. It is a reason to arrive with your eyes open.

A realistic monthly budget for a remote worker living decently on Lagos Island, including a serviced or secured apartment, backup power, data and eating out, lands somewhere around 1,000 to 2,000 US dollars. You can live for far less in mainland Lagos or Abuja, and far more if you want a driver, a generator that never blinks and imported everything.

Cost of living in Nigeria

The single biggest variable is the naira, which has been extremely volatile, so treat every dollar figure below as a moving target and check the rate the week you go.

On the ground in Lagos, Numbeo puts a one-bedroom apartment in the city centre at roughly 990,000 naira a month (very roughly 600 to 650 US dollars at 2026 rates), and around 560,000 naira outside the centre. A three-bedroom in a prime area can run 3.8 million naira and up, which is where the “Lekki is expensive” reputation comes from. Landlords here often want a full year, sometimes two, paid upfront, so budget for a large lump sum rather than a monthly transfer.

Everyday costs are gentler. A meal at a cheap local spot is around 5,000 naira, a litre of milk about 4,300 naira, a dozen eggs roughly 2,800 naira, and basic monthly utilities for a mid-size flat land near 150,000 naira before you add fuel for the generator, which is its own line item. A monthly transport pass sits around 26,000 naira, though most newcomers use ride-hailing (Bolt, inDrive) instead of the buses at first. Imported goods and anything Western-branded carry a steep premium, so eating local is both cheaper and better.

Nigeria residence and entry (there is no digital nomad visa)

Here is the plain truth: Nigeria has no digital nomad visa. If someone is selling you one, walk away.

The real route for anyone planning to actually work and live here runs through the Nigeria Immigration Service. Employment-based residence is built on two documents. First, the Subject To Regularization (STR) visa, which your Nigerian employer or sponsoring company applies for on your behalf before you arrive. Second, once you land, the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card, universally called CERPAC. The immigration service describes CERPAC as the essential document that lets a foreign national “live, work, or conduct business in Nigeria,” typically valid up to one year and renewable, and mandatory for non-Nigerians who take up employment or long-term residence.

For shorter assignments there is the Temporary Work Permit (TWP), aimed at specialists coming in for a specific project. Tourists and scouts can enter on a standard visa or, for many nationalities now, visa on arrival, but that does not grant the right to work, so it is a look-around option, not a move-here one.

The practical read: unless you are being posted by a company or starting a registered Nigerian business, there is no clean self-employed path. Most remote workers who base here do so quietly on visitor status for short stretches, which is a legal grey zone you should understand before you commit. Run your nationality through our digital nomad visa checker to see the current entry rules before you book anything.

Tax residency and the 183 day rule

Nigeria uses the familiar 183-day idea, but with sharper teeth than most countries. Per PwC’s tax summary, you are treated as tax resident if you spend at least 183 days in Nigeria in any 12-month period, but also if you are domiciled here, keep a permanent home available to you, have a habitual abode, or hold substantial economic or family ties. Meeting any one of those is enough.

That matters because a Nigerian resident is generally taxed on worldwide income. Personal income tax is progressive: under the current framework the first 800,000 naira is tax-free, then bands climb from 15 percent up to a top rate of 25 percent on very high earners. None of this is advice, and the rules were reshaped by recent reform, so confirm your own position with a Nigerian tax adviser and sanity-check the days question with our tax residency checker before you assume you are in the clear.

Healthcare and insurance

Plan to go private. Public hospitals are chronically underfunded, and national health insurance still reaches only a small slice of the population, under 5 percent by most counts. For anything serious, wealthier Nigerians and expats use private facilities.

In Lagos the names to know include Reddington Hospital, Lagoon Hospitals, St. Nicholas Hospital and First Cardiology; Abuja has good private options too. These are decent for routine and mid-level care, but for a genuine emergency or complex treatment, many expats plan to fly to Europe, South Africa or the Gulf, which is exactly why comprehensive international health insurance with evacuation cover is non-negotiable here, not a nice-to-have. Local HMOs such as Hygeia, Reliance and Avon offer affordable domestic plans, but read the ceilings carefully. Pack a solid personal medicine kit, and take malaria seriously from day one.

Money, banking and settling in

Opening a Nigerian bank account requires a Bank Verification Number (BVN), a national biometric ID for the financial system, plus your residence documents and proof of address. It is doable with CERPAC but rarely quick, so keep a working foreign card and a multi-currency account (Wise or similar) for your first weeks.

Nigeria is surprisingly cashless in the cities. Bank transfers are the default way to pay for almost everything, card acceptance is common in Lagos and Abuja, and fintech apps are excellent. Cash still matters for markets and small vendors, so carry some. For the essentials on arrival: get a local SIM (MTN and Airtel have the best coverage), sort out backup power before you sort out anything cosmetic, and if you rely on your connection for work, put Starlink on the shopping list because it has changed the game for reliable internet here. Above all, arrive with a local contact. Nigeria runs on relationships, and the friend who introduces you is worth more than any guidebook.

Figures are estimates. Always check the official source.

Frequently asked questions

Nigeria: is there a digital nomad visa?
No dedicated digital nomad visa; most people use a standard residence permit instead.
Nigeria: when do you become a tax resident?
You are generally treated as resident, and taxed on worldwide income, if you spend at least 183 days in Nigeria in a 12 month period or have your domicile, habitual abode or main family and economic ties there; non residents are taxed only on Nigeria source income.
Nigeria: what is the cost of living?
The cost of living is low and the local currency is the NGN. Treat any figures as estimates.
Nigeria: do you need health insurance?
Public healthcare is limited and uneven, so foreigners should rely on private clinics in Lagos or Abuja and carry comprehensive international health insurance with medical evacuation.
Nigeria: can you drive on a foreign licence?
Carry an International Driving Permit alongside your home licence; roads can be poor and many residents hire a local driver.

Terms worth knowing

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Last verified: 2026-07-28

Voymo gives general information to help you organise your move. It is not legal, tax, or immigration advice, always confirm with an official source or a qualified professional before you act.

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