Import Duty Waivers Hit N34tn In 2025, Customs Tells Senate

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, has disclosed that the value of Import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC) approvals 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 hearing with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja.

He said although the Nigeria Customs Service remains one of the country’s highest revenue-generating agencies, government fiscal policies, particularly import duty waivers, have continued to reduce customs revenue.

According to him, the IDEC scheme, introduced in March 2020, remains one of the major policies impacting the agency’s collections.

“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.

Adeniyi explained that other 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.

He maintained that fiscal policies should not be assessed solely on revenue generation, noting that many of the exemptions were introduced to support industrial growth, improve healthcare delivery and achieve broader economic objectives.

The Customs boss, however, recommended stronger 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 generated N4.5 trillion as of June 30, 2026, out of 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), Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi, among others.

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, a claim strongly disputed by the Customs Service.

It also examined allegations that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) failed to remit N13.9 billion in 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,” Musa warned.