Nigeria Customs seeks legislative overhaul of waivers, Customs Act

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is advocating for a comprehensive legislative review of the nation's import waiver and concession system. The service wants the National Assembly to assess whether these incentives still align with their original economic goals and fiscal costs.

Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, also called for a review of the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023. He noted that three years of implementation have revealed provisions that may need refinement to adapt to the country's dynamic trade landscape. Adeniyi made these appeals during a two-day retreat in Abuja for the Senate Committee on Customs, themed 'Legislative Oversight in the Context of Nigeria Customs Service Modernisation and Reforms.'

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Engage us on the exemption regime. A substantial volume of trade enters this country under waivers and concessions granted for policy reasons. Whether those concessions still serve the purposes for which they were created is a legislative question rather than a Customs one, and we would welcome your attention to it.

Adeniyi urged lawmakers to move beyond focusing solely on revenue performance and individual cargo clearances. He proposed that legislative oversight should instead concentrate on the digital systems driving customs operations, such as automated risk management, valuation databases, cargo release timelines, and the effectiveness of tax exemptions. This shift, he argued, would better support the modernization and reform efforts of the NCS.

Regarding waivers, Adeniyi stated that a significant volume of imports enters Nigeria under government-granted concessions. He emphasized that the continued relevance and purpose of these concessions are matters for legislative consideration. This call follows Adeniyi's recent concerns about the escalating scale of import duty waivers, which he disclosed had reached N34tn in 2025. He clarified that approximately 60% of these exemptions were for military hardware procurement, necessitated by Nigeria's prevailing security challenges.

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IDEC approvals reached about N34tn in 2025, 60 per cent of which was rightly granted by the government for military hardware procurement, which attracted duty exemptions because of Nigeria’s prevailing security challenges.