0
ABUJA – The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) exceeded its 2025 revenue target by 10.24 percent, generating N7.277 trillion against a target of N6.584 trillion, despite the impact of government-approved duty waivers, tax concessions and other fiscal policy measures aimed at stimulating economic growth.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed this on Monday while presenting the service’s 2025 budget performance and 2026 budget proposal before the House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise.
Adeniyi said the revenue performance underscored the impact of reforms introduced by the service to strengthen revenue administration, even as several government interventions affected Customs’ revenue outlook during the year.
“The correct revenue generated from January to December 2025 is N7.277 trillion. This represents a positive variance of 10.24 percent above our annual target of N6.584 trillion,” he said.
According to him, the continued suspension of excise duty on telecommunications services throughout 2025 and the non-implementation of some approved tax measures, including the Green Tax, limited revenue growth.
He added that fiscal incentives introduced by the Federal Government to stimulate key sectors of the economy also had implications for Customs collections. These included waivers and concessions granted on pharmaceutical and healthcare products to improve access to healthcare, as well as duty concessions under the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Initiative for CNG-powered and electric vehicles.
Adeniyi identified import duty exemption certificates as the most significant factor affecting revenue generation, disclosing that imports valued at about N34.53 trillion benefited from various waivers and exemptions during the year.
“In 2025, a total of about N34.53 trillion worth of imports received various exemptions and waivers,” he told lawmakers, noting that the beneficiaries included military procurements and other strategic imports approved by the Federal Government.
He added that only a limited number of products remained subject to excise duty in 2025, while the escalation of tensions in the Middle East during the last quarter of the year disrupted imports of strategic commodities, particularly wheat.
Turning to expenditure, the comptroller-general said the service had an approved budget of N1.132 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year but received N808.86 billion for implementation, representing 71.42 percent of the approved estimate.
He explained that the shortfall arose from the transition to a new funding framework under the Nigeria Customs Service Act.
According to him, the budget was prepared on the assumption that the service would operate throughout the year under the four percent Free-on-Board (FOB) Cost of Collection arrangement. However, Customs continued to receive funding under the previous seven percent Cost of Collection model until August 2025 before migrating to the new system.
“The projection for 2025 was predicated on the four percent FOB Cost of Collection. But from January to July, we still relied on the seven percent Cost of Collection until August when implementation commenced. This explains the variance between what was approved and what was actually available,” he said.
Adeniyi commended the National Assembly for supporting the transition to the new funding model.
“We want to put it on record that the support we received from the National Assembly was very instrumental, and we thank you for this.”
The Customs chief said the available funds were deployed to personnel costs, overhead expenditure, capital projects and concessionaire fees.
The presentation, however, drew questions from members of the House Committee, who sought clarification over apparent discrepancies between the approved budget, actual receipts and expenditure figures contained in the report.
A member of the committee, Hon. Alex Ifeanyi Mascot Ikwechegh, representing Aba North/ Aba South Federal Constituency of Abia State, questioned whether the N1.132 trillion represented actual expenditure or merely the approved budget. He also asked the Customs management to explain the concessionaire fees contained in the expenditure breakdown and reconcile the figures presented to the committee.
Responding, Adeniyi explained that the N1.132 trillion represented the approved budget and not actual receipts.
He further clarified that concessionaire fees, which were previously paid from the Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) account managed outside the service, had become the responsibility of the Nigeria Customs Service following the abolition of the CISS account.
“Under the new Act, the responsibility for payment of concessionaire fees was transferred to the Nigeria Customs Service, and these fees are now paid from the four percent FOB Cost of Collection. Twenty-five percent is reserved to meet those obligations,” he explained.
Following the clarification, members of the committee expressed satisfaction with the explanations and invited the Comptroller-General to continue with the presentation of the 2026 budget proposal.
Presenting the service’s projections for 2026, Adeniyi disclosed that Customs had been assigned a revenue target of N11.074 trillion, comprising N5.542 trillion from federation accounts, N1.491 trillion from non-federation accounts, N2.273 trillion from import Value Added Tax (VAT) and N1.26 trillion from the four percent FOB Cost of Collection.
He said the service intends to achieve the target by deepening the deployment of technology, strengthening post-clearance audit mechanisms, expanding intelligence-led enforcement operations and improving trade facilitation.
According to him, the B’Odogwu Unified Customs Management System has become the backbone of the service’s modernisation programme.
“The Unified Customs Management System is now up and running very well. We believe it provides the platform for robust revenue collection,” he said.
Adeniyi also highlighted reforms to … Clearance Audit system undertaken in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Customs Organization (WCO), saying the initiative had enhanced real-time system audits and revenue recovery.
“Through that, we are able to carry out real-time system audits and continue to recover revenue on a daily basis.”
