The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has been instructed to begin enforcing a zero per cent import duty rate and Value-Added Tax (VAT) exemption on essential food items, following an approval by President Bola Tinubu.
This directive was communicated through the Ministry of Finance in a letter addressed to the NCS on August 8, 2024. The NCS confirmed the development in a document shared with a correspondent on Wednesday.
In response to the directive, the Comptroller-General of the NCS, Bashir Adeniyi, ordered officials within the service to commence enforcement measures immediately. A circular titled “Approval for the Implementation of Zero Per Cent Duty Rate on Basic Food Items” was issued by the NCS, further detailing the directive.
The circular, dated August 14, 2024, and signed by Deputy Comptroller-General C.K. Niagwan, emphasized that the approval from President Tinubu is limited to specific food commodities. These include maize, husked brown rice, wheat, grain beans, and millet. The policy is scheduled to take effect from July 15, 2024, and will remain in force until December 31, 2024.
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Additionally, the Ministry of Finance will play a key role in overseeing the policy’s implementation. The ministry will provide a list of approved importers and the corresponding quotas that each importer is permitted to bring in during the policy period. The NCS has been urged to ensure broad enforcement of the policy to guarantee strict compliance across the board.
This move follows a prior announcement by the Federal Government on July 10, 2024, which outlined the suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of staple food items through both land and sea borders.
The aim of this policy is to help curb inflation and ease the burden of rising food prices on the population. On August 7, the NCS confirmed that the duty waiver would be operational within the following week, paving the way for this implementation.