Import duty exemption cost Nigeria N34trn in 2025 – Customs

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi on Monday declared that costs of Import Duty Exemption Certificates ( IDEC) approvals on some imported goods and equipments, which commenced in March 2020, rose to N34 Trillion in 2025.

This is as the Senate Committee on Finance, threatened heads of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Jabi etc , with severe sanctions for failing to appear before it .

The Customs CG at the investigative session the committee had with some revenue generating agencies on Monday said policies of the government at different times affect revenue generating capacity of Customs, positively or negatively.

According to him, Customs as a leading revenue generating agency, would have generated far above what it did in the past years if not for some government policies and other extraneous factors that inhibited it from doing so.

He specifically informed the committee that Import Duty Exemption Certificates (IDEC) on some goods and equipment introduced in March 2020 is one of such policies inhibiting Customs revenue generation.

“IDEC approvals reached about N34 trillion in 2025, 60% of which was rightly done by the government related to military hardware procurements which attracted duty exemptions because of Nigeria’s prevailing security challenges.

“Other government-backed waivers, included Importation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), electric and hybrid vehicles, Healthcare equipment and medical supplies; Industrial machinery and manufacturing inputs; and Food import intervention programmes”, he said.

He however explained that the fiscal policy should not be viewed solely from the perspective of revenue generation but also in terms of achieving broader economic and social objectives but suggested that government should establish stronger monitoring mechanisms to assess whether beneficiaries of duty waivers were delivering the intended economic benefits, such as lower prices, increased production and improved healthcare access.

Earlier in his submission, he said out of the N11. 04 trillion revenue projected for 2026, N4.5 trillion was generated by 30th of June, leaving a balance of about N7 Trillion left to meet up with the set target for the fiscal year.

However, Bello Gulmare who represented Fiscal Responsibility Commission ( FRC) as Deputy Director , Monitoring &:Evaluation alleged that Customs as of 2019, has N8.9billion liability of non – remittance of operating surplus into the Consolidated Revenue Fund ( CFR) , which was vehemently kicked against by Customs.

The committee chaired by Senator Sani Musa (Niger-East), however directed that CAC, the FRC and the committee should hold a meeting to reconcile the details in order to ascertain the exact outstanding balances.

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