The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has, for the third time this year, increased the exchange rate for calculating customs duties at the nation’s seaports to N1,417.635/$.
With the upward review, Nigerians will pay more to clear their goods at the port because import duties are benchmarked against the dollar.
According to information obtained from the official website of the Nigeria Customs Service, the exchange rate was reviewed upward on Friday, February 9, from N1, 413.62/$ to 1,417.635/$.
This represents an increase of N4.015 and a percentage increase of 0.28 per cent, which is below the official CBN exchange rate of N1,481.982/$ as of the morning of Saturday, February 10, 2024.
REPORTERS AT LARGE’s checks reveal that the current upward review of the exchange rate for calculating customs import duty is the third in one week and also the third in 2024.
It is also the seventh time the apex bank has adjusted exchange in the space of eight months since President Tinubu’s administration commenced the floating naira policy, a reform aimed at stabilising the forex market.
The Nigerian Customs had on June 24, 2023, adjusted the exchange rate from N422.30/$ to N589/$, and on July 6, 2023, it was adjusted to N770.88/$; on November 14, 2023, it was adjusted to N783.174/$; in December, it was adjusted to N951.941/$; on February 2, it was moved to N1, 356.883/$; and on February 3, it was raised to N1, 413.62/$; and now it has been raised to N1,417.635/$.
Experts warned that the continued hike in import duty portends a rise in the prices of imported goods and services in the country.
Bisiriyu Fanu, the former chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents at Seme Border, said the hike in customs duty through high FX rates will affect all goods in the market because every commodity in the market has imported input into it.
Earlier, the Director of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Muda Yusuf, lamented that increased import duty would further impoverish Nigerians.
