In a clarifying statement issued Friday, February 13, 2026, the DisCo confirmed that the directive is a strict Business-to-Business (B2B) requirement, affecting only corporate customers, vendors, and strategic partners, not residential household consumers.

The move is a direct response to the Nigeria Tax Act (NTA) 2025, which has introduced a more aggressive digital trail for corporate transactions and VAT verification.

For Ikeja Electric, the data update isn’t just about tax; it is an evolution of their Know Your Business (KYB) and Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures.

By linking TINs to corporate accounts, the DisCo is aligning its internal database with the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) portal.

Digital Invoicing: Under the NTA 2025, supplier invoices must now carry specific metadata, including the company’s Tax ID and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) registration number.

The NRS Portal: The implementation framework requires all corporate invoices to be uploaded and validated on the NRS portal.

For this automated validation to occur, the recipient’s (corporate customer’s) Tax ID is a mandatory data field.

Strategic Compliance vs. Operational Friction

The initial notice, which set a February 20 deadline, sparked fears of mass service suspensions.

However, IE has clarified that the deadline is a compliance milestone for business entities to ensure their invoices remain “tax-valid” under the new law.

“The notice applies strictly to corporate customers (B2B), as well as our vendors and strategic business partners,” the company stated. “The customer’s Tax ID becomes mandatory for processing and verification where validated invoices are transmitted through the [NRS] portal.”

The Digitization of the Nigerian Tax Rail

This directive is a textbook example of the “Invisible Infrastructure” shift highlighted in recent financial blueprints like The Re-Architecture Project.

By mandating TINs for B2B transactions, the government is effectively turning utility companies into data-gathering nodes for the NRS.

For businesses, this means that electricity bills are no longer just operational costs; they are now verifiable tax documents.

Failure to provide a TIN wouldn’t just risk a “service suspension“, it would essentially make it impossible for a company to claim VAT input or legitimate business expenses on their utility spend, as the invoice would fail NRS validation.

Residential users can breathe easy, but for the corporate sector, the message is clear: the era of anonymous business utility consumption is over.

Under a new set of sweeping reforms announced by the state government, all illegal land-related levies have been scrapped, and the cost of owning property has been dramatically simplified.

In a move aligned with Governor Peter Mbah’s broader economic transformation agenda, ground rent, land use charge, and other property-related fees have now been collapsed into a single Unified Land Use Charge, slashed by more than 60 per cent.

Going forward, property owners, whether within government estates or outside them, will make just one annual payment, processed exclusively through the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (EIRS).

The reform, officials say, is designed to remove friction from land administration, ease the burden on property owners, and unlock land as a more productive economic asset in the state.

Governor Peter Mbah made the announcement at a stakeholders’ townhall meeting on land sector development, which held at the International Conference Centre, Enugu, on Thursday.

Represented by Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, the secretary to the State Government (SSG), the Governor said his administration remained committed to building a transparent, efficient, and investor-friendly land administration system anchored on legality, digitisation, and accountability.

He described land as the legal foundation for housing, infrastructure, agriculture, commerce, and investment, stressing that since inception, the administration has pursued deliberate reforms to modernise land governance, reduce uncertainty, curb abuse, and restore public confidence in the land tenure system.

“These reforms are anchored on transparency, predictability, digitisation of records, and strict adherence to statutory processes for land allocation, registration, and development control,” he said, adding that effective land governance must be driven by continuous engagement with communities, professionals, investors, traditional institutions, and citizens.

A major highlight of the reforms is the immediate ban on the controversial Ogbonecheagu fees collected by some communities and local governments. Prof. Onyia said Governor Mbah has declared all such fees illegal and directed their outright abolition following widespread complaints by residents.

A task force has been constituted to enforce compliance, while members of the public who are compelled to pay such illegal charges have been urged to submit evidence to Whistleblowing@enugustate.gov.ng for prompt intervention.

The SSG further revealed that the reforms were informed by the recommendations of a multi-stakeholder Committee on Land-Related Revenue and Administration constituted by the Governor to address complaints of multiple taxation and revenue abuse in the state.

In his remarks, Barr. Chimaobi Okorie, the commissioner for Lands and Urban Development, said Governor Mbah has introduced critical policy directions and legal instruments, including an executive order declaring nine of the state’s seventeen local government areas as urban areas to enable planning and structured infrastructural development.

He also said that the Mbah Administration enacted the Enugu State Geographic Information System (ENGIS) law to serve as a one-stop platform for land transactions and to drive the full digitisation and digitalization of land processes and systems.

According to him, land records are now fully harmonised, eliminating cases of missing files, while every plot of land in the state can be digitally tracked.

The Commissioner added that applicants seeking Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) can now apply online or walk into designated government offices for seamless processing. He further noted that the Property Protection Law signed by Governor Mbah guarantees the security of legitimate property ownership and protects investors’ assets.

In his presentation, Mr. Chiwetalu Nwatu, the managing director of ENGIS, announced that all buildings located in housing estates owned by the Ministry of Housing and the Housing Development Corporation must henceforth obtain building approval directly from the Ministry and the Corporation, irrespective of their locations.

He added that building approval for houses in non-government estates within the Enugu municipal area will now be processed exclusively by the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA) to eliminate jurisdictional overlaps and administrative delays.

Mr. Nwatu further announced that Certificates of Occupancy for all buildings in both private and government estates will now be processed directly for individual property owners, thereby strengthening security of titles and improving assets bankability.

Also speaking, the Mr. Emmanuel Ekene Nnamani, executive chairman of the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ES-IRS), said the newly signed Tax Law was designed to place a greater tax burden on the wealthy while protecting low-income earners.

He urged residents to obtain their Tax Identification Numbers free of charge and comply with tax filing requirements to enable the government to generate accurate data for development planning.