CBN slashes exchange rate for Customs duties, provides relief to importers

Importers in Nigeria have received a welcome reprieve as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced a further reduction in the exchange rate used for calculating Customs duties at the nation’s seaports.

According to information obtained from the official trade portal of the Nigeria Customs Service, the apex bank has slashed the Customs FX duty rate from N1,260.49 per dollar to N1,246.665 per dollar, effective as of Monday, April 8.

This adjustment signifies a 1.1 percent reduction in the exchange rate compared to the previous rate of N1,260.49 per dollar, which was in place as of Friday, April 5. Importers will now benefit from a decrease of N13.825 on each dollar required to clear goods at the port, providing them with much-needed relief amid challenging economic conditions.

The slash in exchange rate for paying import duty is coming on the back of continuous appreciation of the naira in the foreign exchange market with the naira trading at N1,251.05/$ at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on April 5.

What this means is that importers opening Form M today Monday, April 8 for importation will have some measures of relief in terms of the money required to pay import duties compared to the importer who opened Form M on Friday, April 5.

Using the Form M exchange rate to calculate import duties is in line with the apex bank’s new directive that Customs should be using the rate on the date of submitting Form M for calculating import duties.

Meanwhile, there are expectations that the FX rate will witness further decline as the naira grows stronger even as the apex bank plans to sell $15.88 million to 1,588 eligible Bureau De Charge (BDC).

CBN also reviewed the exchange rate for BDC operators to N1,101 per dollar from N1,251/$1.