The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi says the value of Import Duty Exemption Certificate, IDEC, approvals rose to N34 trillion in 2025, driven largely by government policies aimed at strengthening national security and promoting economic development.
Adeniyi disclosed this during an investigative session of the Senate Committee on Finance with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja.
He explained that “government policies have continued to influence the revenue-generating capacity of the Nigeria Customs Service, either positively or negatively.”
According to him, the Service could have generated significantly higher revenue over the years if not for certain fiscal policies and other external factors that reduced its revenue potential.
The Comptroller-General noted that the Import Duty Exemption Certificate scheme, introduced in March 2020, remains one of the major policies affecting Customs revenue.
He revealed that IDEC approvals reached about N34 trillion in 2025, with approximately 60 per cent of the exemptions granted for the importation of military hardware in response to Nigeria’s prevailing security challenges.
Other government-backed duty waivers, he said, covered the importation 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.
Adeniyi, however, stressed that fiscal policy should not be assessed solely on the basis of revenue generation but also “on its contribution to broader economic and social objectives.”
He recommended that the Nigerian Government establish stronger monitoring mechanisms to assess whether beneficiaries of duty waivers are delivering the intended outcomes, including lower consumer prices, increased local production and improved access to healthcare.
The Comptroller-General further disclosed that the Nigeria Customs Service had generated N4.5 trillion as of 30 June 2026, out of its N11.04 trillion revenue target for the year, leaving about N7 trillion to be realised before the end of the fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Bello Gulmare, alleged that the Nigeria Customs Service had an outstanding liability of N8.9 billion in unremitted operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) as of 2019.
The allegation was strongly rejected by the Nigeria Customs Service.
The FRC also alleged that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) owed N13.9 billion in unremitted operating surplus between 2023 and 2025.
Responding, the Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, said efforts were ongoing to settle the outstanding obligations.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa (Niger East), directed the Corporate Affairs Commission, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and the committee to meet and reconcile their records to determine the actual outstanding balance.
He instructed that a comprehensive report of the reconciliation exercise be submitted within two weeks for further legislative consideration.
Senator Musa also warned the heads of 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 other agencies that failed to appear before the committee to attend its next sitting or face sanctions in line with the Senate’s rules.
