By Ayomide Otitoju
The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi, has revealed that import duty exemption certificate approvals reached ₦34 trillion in 2025, describing the policy as a major factor affecting the Service’s revenue generation.
Adeniyi made the disclosure during an investigative session of the Senate Committee on Finance with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja.
He said government fiscal policies have had both positive and negative effects on the Customs Service’s ability to generate revenue, noting that approved import duty waivers have significantly reduced potential collections.
“The NCS would have generated significantly higher revenue over the years if not for government-approved import duty waivers and other external factors affecting collections,” he said.
According to him, the Import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC) scheme, introduced in March 2020, recorded approvals worth about ₦34 trillion in 2025, with nearly 60 per cent covering duty-free importation of military hardware to address Nigeria’s security challenges.
He added that other government-backed waivers covered imports of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), electric and hybrid vehicles, healthcare equipment and medical supplies, industrial machinery and manufacturing inputs, as well as food import intervention programmes.
Despite the impact on Customs revenue, Adeniyi maintained that fiscal policies should not be evaluated solely on revenue generation but also on their economic and social benefits.
He called on the Federal Government to strengthen monitoring mechanisms to ensure beneficiaries of duty waivers deliver expected outcomes, including lower consumer prices, increased local production and improved access to healthcare.
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Finance expressed dissatisfaction over the absence of several heads of government agencies invited to the investigative hearing.
The affected agencies included the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), and the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Sani Musa, warned that the chief executives of the affected agencies must appear before the committee at its next sitting or face sanctions in line with Senate rules.
