Tax APIs for Africa: e-invoicing and TIN checks compared

Mandatory electronic invoicing is not a future requirement in East and West Africa. Kenya's Revenue Authority has made eTIMS compulsory for every business that issues a tax invoice. Ghana's Revenue Authority rolled out a Real-Time VAT system with a published specification that accounting software vendors must implement and certify against. Nigeria has tax-ID verification APIs covering both the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Joint Tax Board.

If you are building accounting software, a fintech product, or any SaaS operating in these markets, here is what the Wycord registry has verified.

Kenya: KRA eTIMS

The Kenya Revenue Authority's Electronic Tax Invoice Management System is the mandatory e-invoicing backbone for Kenya. Any business issuing a tax invoice must onboard. The official portal is at etims.kra.go.ke, and the API is free to access directly. Third-party integrators handle the engineering for businesses that do not self-integrate, but the raw KRA API carries no fee.

Two integration modes:

• OSCU (Online Sales Control Unit): For businesses with always-on invoicing. Enables real-time, persistent system-to-system submission.
• VSCU (Virtual Sales Control Unit): For businesses with batch or intermittently-connected invoicing. Connects your ERP or invoicing system to eTIMS without requiring continuous uptime.

The certification path is structured: development against the sandbox, KRA vetting, then certification. KRA publishes separate specification documents for each mode and provides a sandbox environment open to developers and third-party vendors.

Wycord registry: KRA eTIMS System-to-System API

Open-source tools around KRA

Two verified open-source tools reduce boilerplate for KRA integrations:

KRA MCP Server provides six tools via FastMCP: PAYE calculations, VAT guidance, PIN registration assistance, and tax incentive lookups. The author (Gabriel Mahia) describes the data as demo and guidance material, not a live integration with KRA's production systems. Published to Smithery and Glama. GitHub: gabrielmahia/kra-mcp

Wycord registry: KRA MCP Server

KRA-GAVA-Connect is a Python package by Paul Ndambo for validating KRA PIN numbers and retrieving taxpayer information. The practical use case is KYC flows that require confirming a Kenyan business's tax registration before onboarding. GitHub: Paulndambo/KRA-GAVA-Connect

Wycord registry: KRA-GAVA-Connect

Ghana: GRA Sentinel API

The Ghana Revenue Authority's Sentinel API is the technical specification for the country's Real-Time VAT (RTVAT) system. The system is called VSDC (VAT Submission and Declaration Control). Any accounting or invoicing software sold into Ghana's VAT-registered market must implement this specification.

The spec is version 1.5.8, published as a public PDF by GRA. Vendors must pass GRA's User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process before going live. There is no published UAT certification fee.

The official specification document is available from GRA: gra.gov.gh/online-tools/gra-sentinal-api

Unlike a third-party API, this is a government-published technical specification. You build to it, certify against GRA's test environment, and then your software is eligible to operate in Ghana's VAT-registered market.

Wycord registry: GRA Sentinel API (E-VAT / Electronic Invoicing)

Nigeria: Tax-ID verification

Nigeria does not yet have a mandatory e-invoicing system equivalent to eTIMS or GRA Sentinel. What the registry shows instead is a set of KYC APIs that include tax-ID lookups, which matter for business onboarding, credit decisioning, and compliance screening.

QoreID is the most complete option for Nigerian tax verification. It covers NIN, vNIN, BVN, driver's license, voter records, and both FIRS (Federal Inland Revenue Service) TIN lookup and JTB (Joint Tax Board) verification. The JTB coverage is what makes it stand out: most KYC aggregators stop at identity documents and do not reach the tax board layer. Documentation at docs.qoreid.com.

Wycord registry: QoreID

MetaMap also covers FIRS TIN lookup as part of a broader Nigeria verification suite that includes NIN and business verification. Useful as an alternative or fallback if your existing identity stack already runs through MetaMap.

Wycord registry: MetaMap

Zambia: Payroll and PAYE via MCP

Zambia Fintech MCP is an open-source MCP server built around Zambia's 2024 tax bands. It provides eight tools: bidirectional PAYE and NAPSA payroll calculations, ZESCO prepaid electricity unit math, Bank of Zambia exchange rates, and MTN mobile money fee quoting. GitHub: senorMk/zambia-fintech-mcp

For AI agents that need to answer payroll questions or compute take-home pay in Zambia, this is the only verified tool in the Wycord registry for that use case.

Wycord registry: Zambia Fintech MCP

What to use when

Country	Use case	Resource
Kenya	Mandatory tax invoice submission (all businesses)	KRA eTIMS System-to-System API
Kenya	PAYE calculator or VAT guidance in an AI agent	KRA MCP Server
Kenya	Validate a KRA PIN in a Python KYC flow	KRA-GAVA-Connect
Ghana	Mandatory VAT e-invoicing for accounting/invoicing software	GRA Sentinel API
Nigeria	Tax-ID check with JTB and FIRS coverage	QoreID
Nigeria	FIRS TIN lookup within a broader KYC flow	MetaMap
Zambia	PAYE and NAPSA payroll calculations, MCP tools	Zambia Fintech MCP

The pattern

Kenya and Ghana both moved to mandatory electronic invoicing through government-published APIs with sandbox environments and structured certification paths. Direct API access is free in both cases. The cost is engineering time and the certification process, not licensing fees.

Nigeria's direction points toward similar mandates, but the current verified tools cover tax-ID verification rather than invoice submission. Zambia has community-built tooling for payroll compliance that handles the country-specific math so you do not have to.

For any SaaS product targeting these markets, building the tax compliance integration before launch is easier than retrofitting it after regulators start asking questions.

Browse all verified compliance and tax tools in the Wycord registry: wycord.com/api/resources?q=tax