Nigeria is rethinking its import tariffs as part of an effort to curb food inflation and ease access to production inputs, Jumoke Oduwole, the trade minister said on Thursday, signalling a possible trade policy change as price pressure mounts.
The disclosure came at the second ministerial meeting of the Nigeria–United States Commercial and Investment Partnership in Lagos, where officials from both countries assessed progress under a five-year trade framework signed in 2024.
Oduwole said her ministry, working with the Ministry of Finance, has “undertaken a tariff review” aimed at “recalibrating trade measures” to improve industrial competitiveness.
“This work is being tackled carefully and strategically to support domestic production and create more predictable and efficient conditions for trade and investment,” she added.
Some experts say the review could result in lower duties on select imports.
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“You can’t bring down inflation by increasing tariffs,” said Michael Olawale-Cole, second deputy president of The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (NACCIMA).
He told BusinessDay that the government could “bring down” duties to ease the cost of doing business for Nigeria’s industrial and agricultural sectors, which rely heavily on imported equipment and raw materials.
“If your goods are more expensive than the one being imported, then you are losing out. And the reason why they are expensive is because you have a higher cost of production,” he said.
“So it’s very possible that by looking at some new rates that may not be competitive, they want to slash them…to make it more affordable for industries.”
Nigeria has struggled with persistently high food inflation, though recent data, following a rebasing of inflation metrics, point to some relief. Food inflation eased to 10.84 percent in December 2025 from 39.84 percent a year earlier, while core inflation slowed to 18.63 percent from 29.28 percent over the same period.
Manufacturers have previously warned that import duties on essential inputs, combined with foreign-exchange rates of ~N1,500 to the dollar coupled with high logistics costs, have raised production expenses and weakened domestic output.
The Finance ministry recently suspended a four percent Customs free-on-board levy on imports that had drawn strong opposition from businesses.
Still, Olawale-Cole, who sits on the board of the Nigerian Rural Materials Council, cautions against relying too heavily on tariff cuts
He said manufacturers must “take advantage of local markets,” warning that excessive dependence on imports could undermine efforts to strengthen local industries.
But Nigerian businesses might not be the only ones pleased in the case of a tariff cut.
The trade minister’s announcement was made in front of senior US trade and agriculture officials at a moment of heightened trade sensitivity, after the Trump administration last year imposed a 15 percent tariff on Nigerian exports.
With the US’ increasingly transactional approach to trade relations, a reduction in import tariffs could be interpreted as a conciliatory signal toward the country, which has since 2024 asked for the removal of import bans that Nigeria currently places on up to 25 products.
Brad McKinney, deputy assistant secretary of the US Commercial Service, said at the meeting that both countries were keen to move the proposals presented by the Commercial and Investment Partnership (CIP) working group “from dialogue to outcomes.
The partnership has a particular focus on infrastructure, agriculture and the digital economy, sectors identified by the private sector as offering the greatest scope for deeper commercial engagement.
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Jason Hafemeister, acting associate administrator for Foreign Agricultural Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said outcomes could provide “consistency, predictability and openness” for farmers, who “need to have the confidence that a market will be open for them before they put the seed in the ground.”
He considers Nigeria’s and his country’s agricultural sectors to be “very complementary.”
“Some of the things we grow best don’t grow well here and some of the things that grow well here, we cannot produce. So we look forward to closer economic ties that benefit both countries,” Hafemeister said.
Trade in goods and services between Nigeria and the US totalled about $13 billion in 2024, according to official figures, with Nigerian exports still dominated by oil and energy.
The government has said expanding non-oil exports and improving access to the U.S. market remain central to its trade strategy.
