When Nigerians click ‘checkout’ on Temu or Amazon, or wheel a suitcase through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport terminal, the dread of Customs charges might ease a little.
A new $300 duty-free threshold, one of the highest anywhere, means online orders and travel baggage under that value will now pass without extra fees. The rule is that each person can only enjoy it four times a year, once a quarter.
This cut-off, known as the ‘de minimis’ threshold, exempts low-value consignments from customs charges, while anything above attracts the usual tariffs and procedures.
What this means for online shopping and international consignments
A growing number of Nigerians shop online, with e-commerce penetration steadily rising. By next year, each person could spend an average of $137 on online purchases, according to Payments and Commerce Markets Intelligence (PCMI).
Under the new policy, once a quarter, international express orders on platforms such as Temu, Amazon, Shein, or Aliexpress or on local platforms like Jumia, worth under $300 (approximately N450,000 at the current exchange rate) will attract no Customs duties.
The e-commerce platform will assess the value of a buyer’s cart and, if it falls below the threshold, no additional fees for customs duty will apply. Consumers would only need to pay for the goods and the delivery charge.
The policy also covers packages sent from individual sellers or from friends and family abroad. Each package sent into Nigeria is treated as a single consignment, and its declared value is what Customs assesses against the threshold.
As long as that consignment is valued under $300 and is the recipient’s first duty-free import in the quarter, Customs says it will be cleared immediately, without extra duties or post-release documentation.
The Service stressed that every individual is entitled to only one duty-free import per quarter, totalling four a year, which cannot be rolled over.
“So by the time you make that declaration, your record is on the database. So when you are coming in, they filter to know whether that person has benefited from it in that quarter or not,” said Abdulahi Maiwada, the Service’s national public relations officer.
The restriction, he explained, is to prevent abuse. “If you don’t put a caveat, it will be abused. When you are importing for commercial reasons, you are expected to pay the government…There will be splitting in order to evade payment of Customs duty.”
Read also:Winners, losers of Nigeria’s $300 duty-free import threshold
For passenger merchandise in baggage
It is almost tradition in Nigeria to return home with a piece of where you are coming from.
At airports, however, travellers often clash with officers over how duties are assessed on their purchases and small shipments.
Travellers told BusinessDay that until now, only goods valued below N50,000 were exempted, a bar they considered too low. The new threshold now allows passengers to declare any non-prohibited item bought or retrieved from the departing country under $300 (N450,000) without paying duties.
Nigeria has a ban on imports such as weapons, narcotics, indecent literature, counterfeit and pirated goods, used tyres, and certain unapproved medical products.
Valuation remains a thorny issue, with frequent disputes at Customs checkpoints over the declared value of goods. Officers often challenge invoices, especially when none is provided.
Customs insists this will not be a problem, pointing out that officers have six established methods for determining value.
“This is well defined in line with the Agreement on Customs Valuation (ACV) agreement on customs valuation. Those values are either through the transaction value method or through the fund-back or reasonable means method. So you have transaction value of similar goods, transaction value of identical goods…So whoever is a customs officer and understands customs processes and procedures knows that.” Maiwada said.
Penalties for non-compliance
Customs said it will strictly enforce penalties against stakeholders who manipulate invoices, undervalue goods, or attempt to evade duty obligations.
Sanctions include forfeiture of goods, arrest, and other measures under the Nigeria Customs Service Act, 2023. The Service added that it will set up “multi-channel helpdesk platforms” to guide stakeholders on requirements, inquiries, and complaints.
The initiative is expected to stimulate cross-border e-commerce, reduce clearance delays, and strengthen Nigeria’s position as a regional hub for trade facilitation.
