The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has directed the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to submit a detailed breakdown of the estimated ₦34 trillion import duty waivers granted in 2025, demanding the identities of beneficiaries, approval details and the purposes for which the concessions were approved.
The directive was issued on Wednesday when the management of the Nigeria 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 Federal Government’s waiver policy but insisted that every concession must be transparent and deliver measurable economic benefits.
According to him, the committee wants to determine who benefited from the waivers and whether they achieved the objectives for which they were approved.
“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 questioned discrepancies in the Customs Service’s revenue reports despite the agency consistently exceeding its annual revenue targets.
Faleke acknowledged the agency’s strong revenue performance but said the financial records presented to lawmakers did not adequately explain the sources of revenue generated above approved targets.
He directed the Customs Service to provide a month-by-month breakdown of revenue collections and explain the reasons for the 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.
Deputy Chairman of the committee, Hon. Saidu Mohammed Abdullahi, argued that the Federal Government should consider raising revenue targets for agencies such as Customs, citing their consistent record of outperforming projections.
He noted that the service exceeded its ₦5 trillion revenue target in 2024 by generating ₦6.1 trillion and also surpassed its 2025 target of about ₦6 trillion after recording ₦7.2 trillion.
“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.
Responding on behalf of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, the Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of Finance, Administration and Technical Services, Kikelomo Adeola, clarified that the Nigeria Customs Service does not approve import duty waivers.
She explained that such approvals are issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance in accordance with existing laws and government policies, while the Customs Service only implements the directives.
Adeola also urged state governments to invest in inland dry ports, describing them as strategic infrastructure capable of reducing congestion at seaports, speeding up cargo clearance and improving 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 delays in cargo examination, Adeola told lawmakers that most Customs scanning machines were operational, while only a few were currently undergoing repairs.
A member of the committee, Hon. Ifeanyi Uzokwe, however, urged the agency to hold officers accountable whenever negligence contributes to equipment failures or delays in cargo processing.
The committee also scrutinised the operations of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), directing the agency to submit comprehensive records of all registered companies and businesses in Nigeria, including details of registration fees paid by each entity.
Lawmakers further queried the commission over its failure to submit audited financial statements to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission since 2019, despite statutory obligations.
The committee directed the CAC 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 accumulated an outstanding liability of ₦13.9 billion in unremitted operating surplus over several years.
Responding, the Registrar-General of the CAC said the commission had begun reconciling its accounts with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and agreed to clear the outstanding liability through quarterly payments of ₦500 million.
