How much is plate number registration in Nigeria? A standard private or commercial vehicle number plate costs ₦30,000. A customised (fancy) plate costs ₦400,000, and a motorcycle plate ₦12,000. Those are the fees the Joint Tax Board approved with effect from 8 June 2025, which means the plate number price in Nigeria in 2026 is the same as it was in 2025. What changes from one state to the next is everything around the plate — not the plate itself.
Quoted from the approved schedule and dated, not from an agent’s price list.
How much is a plate number in Nigeria? The Joint Tax Board (JTB) reviews these fees for the whole federation, so every state licensing office charges the same line for the plate itself. The current schedule took effect on 8 June 2025 and was still in force when we last checked it on 17 August 2026.
| Plate type | Official fee | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Standard private vehicle plate | ₦30,000 | Cars, SUVs and buses in personal use. |
| Standard commercial vehicle plate | ₦30,000 | Taxis, danfos, keke and anything else driven for hire. |
| Articulated vehicle plate | ₦90,000 | Trucks, trailers and tankers. |
| Dealer plate | ₦100,000 | Registered dealerships moving stock that is not registered yet. |
| Out-of-series plate | ₦150,000 | A number outside the normal sequence for your LGA code. |
| Fancy (customised) vehicle plate | ₦400,000 | A combination you choose yourself — a name, initials, a brand. |
| Government standard vehicle plate | ₦80,000 | Vehicles owned by federal, state or local government. |
| Government fancy vehicle plate | ₦120,000 | Chosen combinations on government vehicles. |
| Plate type | Official fee | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Motorcycle plate | ₦12,000 | Okada and privately owned motorcycles. |
| Fancy motorcycle plate | ₦50,000 | A chosen combination on a motorcycle. |
| Government motorcycle plate | ₦20,000 | Motorcycles owned by a government agency. |
| Government fancy motorcycle plate | ₦50,000 | Chosen combinations on government motorcycles. |
These are the plate lines only. None of them covers the vehicle licence, the roadworthiness certificate, insurance or the paperwork around them — that bill is in the next section.
The plate is one line on the bill. Registering a car in Nigeria ran between ₦115,000 and ₦140,000 in 2025, against ₦80,000 to ₦105,000 in 2024. The figures below are market rates reported by dealers and licensing agents — a range to budget against, not an approved schedule.
| What you are paying for | Typical 2025 cost |
|---|---|
| Number plate (the official line) | ₦30,000 |
| Vehicle licence, by engine size | ₦5,000–₦15,000 |
| Roadworthiness certificate | ₦5,000–₦10,000 |
| Third-party insurance | ₦15,000 |
| Full registration through an agent | ₦115,000–₦140,000 |
Agents commonly ask up to ₦50,000 for the plate alone, against the approved ₦30,000. The gap buys transport, courier runs and “facilitation” at the counter — it does not buy a different plate.
Changing ownership on a used car costs more than registering a new one: ₦130,000 to ₦150,000, because it adds a sale agreement, a police report, a court affidavit and an inspection before the papers are reissued.
Ask for the receipt on every line. A charge nobody will put on paper is not a government fee.
No — the plate line is federal. A standard plate is ₦30,000 in Lagos, in the FCT and in every other state. What differs is the office you deal with, the queue in front of it and the state charges around the plate.
How much is a Lagos plate number in 2026? The same ₦30,000 as everywhere else — Lagos sets no fee of its own. Plates are issued by the Motor Vehicles Administration Agency (MVAA), through the One-Stop Centre in Oshodi and the MVAA stations across the state. Lagos also runs the busiest resale market in the country, which is where the agent markup above comes from.
The Abuja plate number price is that same ₦30,000. The Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) handles registration in the Federal Capital Territory and insists on its own self-service portal. Plates are produced under the National Vehicle Identification Scheme, and when the plant runs short, touts appear quoting prices of their own. Scarcity does not change the approved fee.
The plate line stays ₦30,000, collected by the state motor vehicle licensing authority. What varies is the vehicle licence band, the roadworthiness fee and how much an agent adds — so ask for the state’s published rate before you pay anything.
Not sure which state and LGA a plate belongs to? The first three letters say so: read the plate code directory.
A customised plate number — the kind carrying a name, initials or a company brand — costs ₦400,000, more than thirteen times the ₦30,000 standard plate. It is the most expensive line on the civilian schedule, and demand for it keeps growing in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
You cannot simply invent a combination. The request goes through the licensing authority, it must not clash with a registration that already exists, and it can be refused on security or naming grounds. A fancy plate also replaces nothing: the vehicle still needs a valid licence, a roadworthiness certificate and insurance.
Two neighbours on the schedule get confused with it. A dealer plate (₦100,000) is for a registered dealership moving stock that has no registration yet, and an out-of-series plate (₦150,000) is a number issued outside the normal sequence of your LGA code — neither is a personalised plate.
The approved schedule has no separate line for a replacement: the same categories and the same fees apply, so a replacement standard plate starts from ₦30,000, and each state adds its own processing charge on top. If an office quotes you something else, ask which approved line it comes from.
States do discount it from time to time. In January 2026 the Lagos government approved a three-month rebate window for motorists replacing faded and unreadable plates through MVAA — without publishing how deep the rebate goes. Rebates cover worn plates, never a new registration.
A plate nobody can read is an enforcement problem before it is a cosmetic one — and on a used car it is a good reason to check the vehicle’s history before you pay for it.
Four steps, in the order the counter takes them. Before you start, settle the category — private, commercial, motorcycle, dealer, out-of-series or fancy — because the category sets the fee on the schedule above, and the make of the car does not.
Your state licensing office, an MVAA centre in Lagos, the DRTS self-service portal in the FCT. Somebody at a car park gate is not an official channel, whatever shirt they are wearing.
Proof of ownership, the customs papers if the car was imported, a valid ID, and the inspection or roadworthiness report your state asks for.
Pay through the portal or into the official account, never into somebody’s personal account, and take a receipt for every line on the bill.
The three letters encode the LGA that issued the plate, and the number has to match your certificate. A mismatch is far cheaper to sort out at the counter than on the road.
Once the plate is on the car, you can confirm what those three letters mean: verify a plate number.
The Joint Tax Board — the body that coordinates the federal and state tax authorities — is the only one empowered to review these fees, and it did so with effect from 8 June 2025, citing new security features on the plates and the cost of producing them.
The Federal Road Safety Corps has said in as many words that it is not a revenue agency and does not fix these prices, even though FRSC officers are who you meet when a plate is wrong. State licensing authorities collect the fee and issue the plate; the plates themselves are produced under the National Vehicle Identification Scheme.
Reviews are rare and steep. Before the current schedule, the last one was in 2021, when a standard plate went from ₦12,500 to ₦18,750 and a fancy plate rose to ₦200,000. Expect the next figure to jump rather than drift.
Anyone quoting a figure that is not on the approved schedule is quoting their own convenience fee. You are entitled to see the published rate before you pay.
A standard private or commercial vehicle number plate costs ₦30,000. That is the approved Joint Tax Board fee, in force since 8 June 2025 and unchanged for 2026. Registering the vehicle around that plate costs far more in practice — between ₦115,000 and ₦140,000.
No. The schedule that took effect on 8 June 2025 is still the current one, so the 2025 and 2026 prices are the same figures. The review before it was in 2021, when a standard plate went from ₦12,500 to ₦18,750.
A fancy, customised plate costs ₦400,000, against ₦30,000 for a standard one. The combination still has to be approved by the licensing authority, and it does not replace the vehicle licence, the roadworthiness certificate or insurance.
The plate line itself is national: ₦30,000 everywhere. What differs is the office — MVAA in Lagos, DRTS in the FCT, the licensing authority in every other state — along with the state charges around the plate and whatever an agent adds on top.
Because the approved fee covers the plate, not the running around: transport, courier costs and informal “facilitation” at the counter. Agents commonly ask up to ₦50,000 for the plate alone. Paying that is your decision — being told it is the official price is not true.
The Joint Tax Board. The FRSC has stated publicly that it is not a revenue agency and does not set these prices, although its officers enforce plate rules on the road. State licensing authorities collect the money and issue the plate.
Government fees change, and a price page without a date is worth nothing. Every amount above was checked against these reports on 17 August 2026.
The plate says where a vehicle was registered. The VIN says what happened to it before it got here — auction records, mileage, damage, import history. Check both before the money moves.
