The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adeniyi, has disclosed that the value of Import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC) approvals granted by the Federal Government reached N34 trillion in 2025, warning that the policy has significantly reduced the agency’s revenue-generating capacity.
Adeniyi made the disclosure on Monday during an investigative hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja.
He explained that while the Nigeria Customs Service remains one of the country’s highest revenue earners, government-approved duty waivers and fiscal policies have limited its ability to generate even higher revenues.
According to him, the IDEC policy, introduced in March 2020, has had a major impact on Customs revenue.
He noted that about 60 percent of the N34 trillion worth of approvals in 2025 covered duty-free imports of military hardware due to Nigeria’s security challenges.
Other exemptions, he said, were granted for the importation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) equipment, electric and hybrid vehicles, healthcare equipment, medical supplies, industrial machinery, manufacturing inputs and food intervention programmes.
Despite the revenue losses, Adeniyi said import duty waivers should not be viewed only from a revenue perspective, as they also support economic growth, industrial development and social welfare.
He, however, urged the Federal Government to strengthen monitoring mechanisms to ensure beneficiaries of the incentives achieve the intended objectives, including lower prices, increased industrial production and improved healthcare services.
Customs Generates N4.5 Trillion in First Half of 2026
The Customs boss also informed lawmakers that the agency generated N4.5 trillion as of June 30, 2026, from its annual revenue target of N11.04 trillion.
He said the service still has about N7 trillion to generate before the end of the fiscal year.
Senate Probes Alleged Unremitted Funds
The hearing also highlighted disagreements over the alleged failure of some government agencies to remit operating surpluses into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Representing the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Deputy Director of Monitoring and Evaluation Bello Gulmare alleged that the Nigeria Customs Service owed N8.9 billion in unremitted operating surplus as of 2019.
Customs officials, however, rejected the claim.
The commission also alleged that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) had an outstanding N13.9 billion in unremitted operating surplus covering the period between 2023 and 2025.
Responding, the Registrar-General of the CAC, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, said the commission had been settling the outstanding obligations in phases.
Following the submissions, the Senate Committee on Finance directed the CAC, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and the committee’s secretariat to reconcile their records and determine the actual outstanding balance.
Committee Chairman Senator Sani Musa (Niger East) gave the parties two weeks to complete the reconciliation before the next hearing.
Senate Warns Agencies Over Failure to Appear
The committee also expressed displeasure over the absence of several agency heads at the investigative session.
Senator Musa warned that the heads of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi, and other agencies that failed to honour the invitation must attend the next sitting or face sanctions under Senate rules.
The Senate has recently intensified oversight of revenue-generating agencies to improve government earnings, ensure compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, and enforce the remittance of operating surpluses into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Lawmakers are also reviewing the impact of tax waivers and import duty exemptions on Nigeria’s revenue as part of efforts to strengthen non-oil income generation.
