Adewale Adeniyi, the comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has said that the Service will use the exchange rate on the official Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) window for clearing of imported goods and will not engage in arbitrary increase or decrease in the exchange rate.
He said the policy of merging the multiple exchange rate windows has repercussions on the operations of the Customs.
He said that the Nigeria Customs Service does not independently fix its exchange rate for goods clearance but only updates its system based on what is on the CBN’s official window.
“We cannot use rates that are not determined through the CBN merged forex window. It is not about Customs increasing the rates, what we do is update our system according to the specification of CBN, which is the regulator of monetary affairs in Nigeria,” he said.
The Customs had on June 24, 2023, adjusted the exchange rate from N422.30/$ to N589/$, and on July 6, 2023, it was adjusted to N770.88/$, on November 14, 2023, it was adjusted to N783.174/$ and on December 2023, it was adjusted to N951.941/$.
The Customs boss said that the Customs Service would adhere to the fiscal policies of the Tinubu administration concerning import and export duties.
He said the Customs was more than ready to implement the new fiscal directive of the Federal Government that specified the removal of 7.5 percent VAT on LPG equipment imports and the removal of VAT on steel and electric vehicle imports into the country.
Adeniyi said that the duties of the Customs Service were beyond revenue generation but trade facilitation and there are hopes to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA) to improve trade between African countries which coincidentally leads to more revenue generation.
He added that the Customs Service has increased its revenues by 37 percent since he assumed office and has set a target of N5.1 trillion in revenues for the 2024 fiscal year.
