Import Duty Exemptions Cost Federal Govt N34trn In 2025, Customs Tell Senate

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, has disclosed that approvals for Import Duty Exemption Certificates (IDECs) rose to about N34 trillion in 2025, significantly affecting the service’s revenue generation.

Adeniyi made the disclosure on Monday while appearing before the Senate Committee on Finance during an investigative session with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja.

He explained that although the Nigeria Customs Service remained one of the country’s highest revenue-generating agencies, several government policies, particularly import duty waivers, had affected its revenue performance over the years.

According to him, the Import Duty Exemption Certificate scheme, introduced in March 2020, remains one of the major fiscal policies reducing customs revenue.

“IDEC approvals reached about N34 trillion in 2025, with about 60 per cent relating to military hardware procurements that attracted duty exemptions because of Nigeria’s prevailing security challenges,” he said.

He added that other government-backed duty waivers covered the importation of compressed natural gas (CNG), electric and hybrid vehicles, healthcare equipment and medical supplies, industrial machinery and manufacturing inputs, as well as food import intervention programmes.

The Customs boss, however, maintained that fiscal policies should not be judged solely on the basis of revenue generation, noting that many of the exemptions were designed to achieve broader economic and social objectives.

He recommended that the federal government strengthen monitoring mechanisms to ensure beneficiaries of duty waivers deliver the intended outcomes, including lower consumer prices, increased industrial production and improved access to healthcare.

Providing an update on revenue performance, Adeniyi disclosed that the Service had generated N4.5 trillion as of June 30, 2026, against its N11.04 trillion revenue target for the year, leaving about N7 trillion to be realised before the end of the fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Finance threatened to invoke its powers against several government agencies that failed to honour its invitation to the investigative hearing.

The affected agencies include the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi.

The committee also heard allegations from the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) that the Nigeria Customs Service had an outstanding liability of N8.9 billion in unremitted operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund dating back to 2019.

Representing the FRC, its deputy director of Monitoring and Evaluation, Bello Gulmare, told the committee that the liability remained unresolved, a claim strongly disputed by the Nigeria Customs Service.

The committee also examined a similar issue involving the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), which was alleged to owe N13.9 billion in unremitted operating surplus between 2023 and 2025.

Responding, the Registrar-General of the CAC, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, said the commission had been settling the outstanding obligations progressively.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa (Niger East), directed the CAC, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and the committee’s secretariat to reconcile their records and submit a detailed report within two weeks.

He warned that heads of agencies that failed to appear before the committee, including the NCAA, ITF, SMEDAN and FMC Jabi, must attend the next sitting or face sanctions in accordance with the Senate’s rules.

“They should unfailingly make themselves available at the next sitting or risk severe sanctions through the invocation of relevant provisions of our rules,” Senator Musa warned.