The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adeniyi, has revealed that the Federal Government approved Import Duty Exemption Certificates (IDEC) worth about N34 trillion in 2025, warning that the policy has significantly reduced the agency’s revenue potential.
Adeniyi made the disclosure on Monday while appearing before the Senate Committee on Finance during an investigative hearing with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja.
According to the Customs chief, government fiscal policies play a major role in determining the agency’s revenue performance, noting that although Customs remains one of Nigeria’s highest revenue-generating institutions, collections could have been substantially higher without duty waivers and other tax incentives.
He explained that the IDEC policy, introduced in March 2020, has become one of the biggest factors affecting Customs revenue.
“Import Duty Exemption Certificate approvals reached about N34 trillion in 2025, with about 60 per cent covering military hardware procurement because of the country’s prevailing security challenges,” Adeniyi said.
He added that the exemptions also covered the importation of compressed natural gas (CNG), electric and hybrid vehicles, healthcare equipment and medical supplies, industrial machinery, manufacturing inputs, as well as food import intervention programmes.
Despite the impact on revenue, Adeniyi maintained that duty waivers should not be viewed solely through the lens of revenue generation, arguing that they are designed to support broader economic and social objectives.
He, however, called for stricter monitoring of beneficiaries to ensure the incentives translate into reduced prices, increased industrial production and improved healthcare delivery.
The Customs boss also informed lawmakers that the service had generated N4.5 trillion as of June 30, representing part of its N11.04 trillion revenue target for 2026, leaving roughly N7 trillion to be realised before the end of the fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the hearing exposed disagreements over the remittance of operating surpluses by some government agencies.
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The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), represented by its Deputy Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, Bello Gulmare, alleged that the Nigeria Customs Service had an outstanding liability of N8.9 billion from unremitted operating surplus into the Consolidated Revenue Fund as of 2019.
Customs officials rejected the claim.
The commission also alleged that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) owed N13.9 billion in unremitted operating surplus covering the period between 2023 and 2025.
Responding, CAC Registrar-General Hussaini Ishaq Magaji said the commission had been making gradual payments toward the outstanding obligations.
Following the submissions, the Senate Committee on Finance directed the CAC, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and its secretariat to reconcile their records and determine the actual amount outstanding.
Committee Chairman, Senator Sani Musa (Niger East), ordered that the reconciliation be completed within two weeks ahead of another meeting with the affected agencies.
Musa also warned heads of agencies, including the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi, and others that failed to honour the committee’s invitation to ensure they appear at the next sitting or face sanctions under Senate rules.
The Senate has recently intensified its oversight of revenue-generating agencies as part of efforts to improve government earnings, enforce compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act and ensure proper remittance of operating surpluses into the Consolidated Revenue Fund. Lawmakers have also stepped up scrutiny of tax waivers and import duty exemptions amid growing efforts to boost Nigeria’s non-oil revenue.