Reps demand details of ₦34tn customs waivers, query revenue records

By Gift ChapiOdekina, Abuja

The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has directed the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to provide a comprehensive breakdown of the estimated ₦34 trillion import duty waivers granted in 2025, including beneficiaries, approval details and the purposes for which the concessions were issued.

The directive was issued on Wednesday when the management of the Customs Service appeared before the committee as part of the National Assembly’s ongoing revenue monitoring and oversight exercise.

Chairman of the committee, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke, said lawmakers were not opposed to the government’s policy of granting waivers but insisted that such concessions must be transparent and yield the expected economic benefits.

He said the committee needed to know who benefited from the waivers and whether they achieved the objectives for which they were granted.

“Waiver is good. It is not a bad thing to grant waiver. But we want to know those who benefited from the waiver and the purpose for such waiver. It is okay if you grant waiver on medical and agricultural products.

“If you grant waiver, it is aimed at helping the economy to grow. For example, if you grant waiver on agricultural products, it is aimed at reducing the cost of food. So, we are not against waiver. But we want to know the beneficiaries of this ₦34 trillion waiver,” Faleke said.

The committee also raised concerns over discrepancies in Customs revenue reports despite the agency’s repeated performance above annual targets.

Faleke said although the agency had recorded impressive revenue collections, the financial documents presented to the committee did not clearly explain the sources of the excess revenue generated beyond approved targets.

He directed Customs to submit a month-by-month breakdown of revenue collections and explanations for variations.

“We are not going to applaud your efforts now because your account books are not balanced. We know that you want to be transparent, but you have not told us how the excess money you are reporting came about.

“I can see that in some months, you under-declare your revenue collection and in other months, you overshoot the collection. We want to know what is responsible for this,” he said.

The Deputy Chairman of the committee, Hon. Saidu Mohammed Abdullahi, argued that the Federal Government should review and increase revenue targets for agencies such as Customs, given their consistent performance above projections.

He said Customs had demonstrated the capacity to generate more revenue if given higher targets.

“I personally believe that they can do more than the target we give to them. I think we are not pushing them enough. That is why they will always come up with excesses,” Abdullahi said.

He noted that Customs surpassed its ₦5 trillion target in 2024 by generating ₦6.1 trillion, while it also exceeded its 2025 target of about ₦6 trillion after recording ₦7.2 trillion.

Responding, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, represented by the Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of Finance, Administration and Technical Services, Kikelomo Adeola, clarified that the agency does not approve import duty waivers.

According to her, waivers are approved by the Federal Ministry of Finance in line with existing laws and government policies, while Customs only implements the approvals.

Adeola urged state governments to invest in inland dry ports, describing them as critical infrastructure that would reduce congestion at seaports, speed up cargo clearance and improve trade facilitation.

“I will encourage all state governments to invest in inland dry ports. That will have a lot of impact on our operations. Any cargo that is marked for such inland port will not be delayed at the main port.

“The container will be transported directly to the inland port where it will be examined. That will reduce the pressure at the nation’s ports and increase trade facilitation in the states,” she said.

On cargo examination delays, Adeola told lawmakers that most Customs scanning machines were operational, with only a few undergoing repairs.

However, a member of the committee, Hon. Ifeanyi Uzokwe, urged the Customs management to ensure officers were held accountable where negligence contributed to equipment failure or delays in cargo processing.

Meanwhile, the committee also reviewed the operations of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), directing the agency to provide comprehensive records of registered companies and businesses in Nigeria, including registration fees paid by each entity.

Lawmakers also queried the CAC over its failure to submit audited financial statements to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission since 2019, despite statutory requirements.

The committee directed the commission to reconcile its accounts with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission without further delay.

A representative of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission told lawmakers that the CAC had an outstanding liability of ₦13.9 billion in unremitted operating surplus accumulated over several years.

Responding, the Registrar-General of the CAC said the agency had commenced reconciliation with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and agreed to clear the outstanding amount through quarterly payments of ₦500 million.

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