The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced a reduction in the exchange rate fees for customs duty payments in Nigerian seaports.
According to details obtained from the official trade portal of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Customs Foreign exchange duty rate was dropped from ₦1, 662.35/$ to ₦1630.159/$ as of Thursday, February 29, 2024.
This reduction represents a decrease of 1.9% when compared to the former rate of ₦1, 662.35/$ used as of the previous day - Wednesday, February 28, 2024.
The decrease also showed that importers would now pay ₦32.191 less on a dollar to clear goods from the port.
The Naira's continued dip has negatively affected the customs' fx duty rate as importers have had to battle with new rates almost on a daily basis.
The disruptions in import duty calculations have further led to several alterations in pricing and overall business operation with Nigerians having to pay more for goods every day depending on the new pricing mechanism in the seaports.
The CBN in response to these complaints by stakeholders regarding the inconsistent import duty assessment levies, had issued a directive advising the NCS to stick to the closing foreign exchange rate in the official window for all import duty calculations.
The apex bank had also issued a directive to that effect, that when calculating import duties, the NCS should focus on the rate on the date of submitting Form M.
With this new development, importers who opened Form M on Thursday, February 29, 2024, for any import trade, will pay less for import duties compared to importers who opened Form M on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, before the reduction was made.
However, stakeholders in the industry have noted that the reduction in FX fees may not fix the issues with clearing goods from the Nigerian ports. They called on the FG to attend to more pressing concerns like the current prohibitive cost of clearing goods at the ports which have risen by over 40% in the last two months.