How much does an affidavit of loss cost in Nigeria?

The government charge for swearing a single affidavit is the court stamp duty, paid to the court where it is sworn. It is small, and each state and registry sets its own figure for a standard one-page affidavit.

Many courts now take the fee online. On the Federal High Court e-affidavit portal (portal.fhc.gov.ng) you pay online, by Paystack or Remita, and payments are final, non-refundable and non-transferable. As one example, The Telegraph saw ₦1,797 on a single application, but fees vary by service, so check the amount the portal shows before you pay.

In Lagos, general affidavits are obtained only through the LagosCoMiS online platform, which publishes no fee schedule. The stamp duty is the only mandatory fee. Everything else added to the bill is either a real service or a markup.

The stamp duty is not the expensive part — the day is. Swearing an affidavit yourself at a registry means travelling there, queuing, and getting the Commissioner for Oaths to stamp it. On a busy day at a major registry, that is a half-day gone. For most working people, that lost half-day is worth far more than the stamp duty.

There is also the tout problem. Registries in major cities have facilitators who offer to get you seen faster for a fee — often several times the stamp duty, and rarely itemised. That markup is the real cost when people complain an affidavit was "expensive."

Starting it on Docufy gives you one all-in price that covers the government fee, our service fee for drafting the affidavit from your answers and having a vetted partner firm handle the filing, and VAT. You see it before you pay, it is fixed once you submit, and the sworn affidavit comes back to your vault as a PDF with a verify link.

See the live price and target time on the affidavit of loss page, and the court documents hub.

Generally no. An affidavit of loss for a lost SIM, a lost ATM card, a lost certificate, or a lost ID is the same one-page sworn statement with the same stamp duty. The content differs; the cost does not. What can add cost is needing several affidavits at once, or needing the affidavit authenticated for use abroad. Nigeria does not issue apostilles; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs authenticates documents for use abroad instead, as a separate step.

If someone quotes you a single lump sum for a simple affidavit of loss and cannot say how much of it is stamp duty, you are likely paying a facilitator markup. The stamp duty is small. Whether you do it yourself or use an online service, you should be able to see the stamp duty and any service fee as separate lines — if you cannot, ask before you pay.

For where to swear an affidavit and the other court documents people ask about, see our affidavit guides.