From Fintech Leadership to Digital Dependence: An Academic Critique of Nigeria’s Externalization of Tax Infrastructure

By Adam Olatunji Muritala

Based on the original analysis by Dr. Segun Adebayo, Executive Director, CAfPRA

In December 2025, Nigeria crossed an alarming threshold. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with France’s Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (DGFiP)—one of Europe’s most sophisticated tax authorities. Presented as a strategic partnership to enhance digital tax administration, the agreement raises fundamental questions about sovereignty, economic security, and Nigeria’s long-standing reputation as a fintech powerhouse.

For scholars of public finance, digital governance, and national security, this development is not merely a bureaucratic decision; it is a structural shift that may redefine who truly controls Nigeria’s fiscal future. The central issue is not whether France is competent — it is whether Nigeria is consciously surrendering strategic digital assets at the heart of national sovereignty.

This article builds on the incisive analysis of Dr. Segun Adebayo, whose early warnings about foreign encroachment on Nigeria’s digital tax backbone now appear prescient. His argument is straightforward: No nation becomes sovereign by outsourcing its fiscal intelligence to foreign powers.

The Paradox of a Digital Giant Choosing Dependence 

Nigeria is Africa’s undisputed fintech leader. PayStack, TeamApt, Flutterwave, Interswitch, PiggyVest, NIBSS, and dozens of high-performance indigenous firms have built some of the most robust digital payment and data-processing infrastructures on the continent. Nigeria processes over 70% of West Africa’s digital financial traffic, hosts Africa’s largest fintech user base, and exports software talent across the globe.

Yet in spite of this unmatched capacity, Nigeria bypassed its homegrown innovators and handed the backbone of tax intelligence—a core national asset—to a foreign government.

This is not innovation.

This is not capacity building.

This is digital dependence disguised as technical partnership.

Why should a nation that built Africa’s strongest fintech ecosystem outsource tax data management to France? What specific capability does DGFiP possess that Nigeria’s fintech giants cannot replicate, scale or surpass? There has been no transparent evidence, no comparative analysis, no public security review — only a rushed MoU that bypassed domestic institutions and ignored long-standing sovereign concerns.

Tax Data: The Nuclear Code of an Economy

Tax systems are not merely administrative tools; they are the fiscal nervous system of modern states. Whoever controls tax data controls:

• National spending patterns
• Sectoral growth insights
• Corporate performance statistics
• Household financial behaviour
• Geographical economic strengths and vulnerabilities
• Revenue leakage points
• Real-time indicators of national resilience or fragility

This is the information that shapes trade negotiations, investment decisions, loan requirements, and geopolitical leverage. That is why serious nations insulate their tax architecture from foreign control.

As Dr. Adebayo consistently warned, taxpayer data is national power. Opening the door to a foreign nation — not a foreign company but an actual foreign government—is a multidimensional national security hazard.

The FIRS–France MoU does not merely provide "technical support"; it provides unprecedented access to Nigeria’s fiscal intelligence grid.

The Underestimated Risks of Externalizing Tax Infrastructure

1. Economic Subordination

A country that allows foreign control of its tax infrastructure becomes financially predictable and therefore manipulable. France would gain advanced visibility into sectoral performance, enabling strategic advantage in trade negotiations with Nigeria.

2. Digital Colonialism

Dependence on a foreign sovereign for tax administration is a subtle form of digital colonization. Control shifts quietly, through data rather than territory.

3. Surveillance and Strategic Espionage

Tax data reveals national weaknesses. It shows which industries are struggling, which are rising, which regions are vulnerable, and which corporations hold the economy together.

Such insight in the hands of a foreign state is not “partnership”; it is strategic surveillance.

4. Geopolitical Leverage

With real-time fiscal insights, France can exert diplomatic pressure, shape investment decisions and influence multilateral engagements to its advantage.

No serious nation exposes itself this way.

Why Indigenous Fintechs Are Nigeria’s Best Defence

Nigeria’s fintech sector is not merely competitive—it is world-class. These firms already manage:

Billions of daily transactions

High-volume real-time payment infrastructure

Secure and scalable APIs

Regulatory-compliant data systems

Fraud detection frameworks

Cross-border financial flows

Payment reconciliation at national scale

If these companies can power Africa’s digital economy, why are they considered incapable of digitizing Nigeria’s tax administration?

If they can build core banking systems used by banks across the continent, why should we trust France over Interswitch?

If NIBSS can handle the BVN, NIN integration, instant payments, and systems serving 200 million citizens, what advantage does DGFiP have that Nigeria’s ecosystem cannot replicate?

The truth is simple:

Nigeria is not short of capacity—it is short of confidence in its own capacity.

Policy Alternatives: A Sovereign, Nigerian-Centered Tax Architecture

Building on Dr. Adebayo’s earlier submissions to the National Assembly, Nigeria should immediately adopt the following policy positions:

1. Disenfranchise the FIRS–France MoU Completely

Terminate the agreement before the Nigeria Revenue Service becomes operational in January 2026. Foreign governments should not, under any circumstance, manage or have access to Nigeria’s tax data.

2. Classify Tax Data as “Sensitive National Data”

This ensures tax records are treated with the same level of protection as national security information.

3. Enforce Nigerian Ownership Thresholds

At least 80% Nigerian ownership and control for any entity processing tax data.

4. Prioritize Nigerian Fintech Companies

Contract indigenous firms such as PayStack, Flutterwave, Interswitch, NIBSS, and other Nigerian-led firms to design and operate digital tax systems.

5. Strengthen Cross-Border Data Restrictions

Foreign processors—even those operating within Nigeria—must face stricter limits on handling tax-related information.

6. Legislative Action

Nigeria’s National Assembly must prioritize the data sovereignty amendments proposed by Dr. Adebayo to prevent recurrence.

Conclusion: Sovereignty Cannot Be Outsourced

Nigeria stands today at a digital crossroads. We can either maintain control over the heartbeat of our economy — our tax data—or surrender it to foreign powers under the illusion of "technical assistance."

Fintech leadership is meaningless if it does not translate into sovereign digital governance. A nation that leads in payments, innovation, and digital entrepreneurship should not become dependent in the most sensitive area of fiscal intelligence.

The FIRS–France MoU is not a partnership.

It is a precedent.

And if not reversed, it will be the first chapter of Nigeria’s slide into digital dependency.

Nigeria must choose sovereignty.

Nigeria must choose its innovators.

Nigeria must choose itself