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ABUJA – The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, has disclosed that the value of Import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC) approvals granted by the Federal Government rose to approximately N34 trillion in 2025, significantly impacting the agency’s revenue generation capacity.
Adeniyi made the disclosure on Monday during an investigative session of the Senate Committee on Finance with key revenue-generating agencies of government.
According to the Customs chief, while the NCS remains one of the country’s leading revenue-generating institutions, several government policies and external factors have constrained its ability to maximize revenue collection over the years.
He identified the Import Duty Exemption Certificate scheme, introduced in March 2020, as one of the major policies affecting Customs revenue. “IDEC approvals reached about N34 trillion in 2025.
About 60 percent of the exemptions were related to military hardware procurements, which attracted duty waivers because of the nation’s prevailing security challenges,” Adeniyi told the committee.
He added that other government- backed duty waivers covered the importation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) equipment, electric and hybrid vehicles, healthcare equipment and medical supplies, industrial machinery and manufacturing inputs, as well as food import intervention programmes.
Despite the revenue implications, the Customs boss argued that fiscal policy should not be assessed solely from the perspective of revenue generation.
According to him, government interventions through duty exemptions are often designed to achieve broader economic and social objectives, including enhancing national security, supporting industrial growth, improving healthcare delivery, and reducing the cost of critical goods.
However, he urged the Federal Government to establish stronger monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure that beneficiaries of duty waivers deliver the intended economic outcomes, including lower consumer prices, increased local production, job creation, and improved access to healthcare services.
Providing an update on the agency’s revenue performance, Adeniyi revealed that the NCS had generated N4.5 trillion as of June 30, 2026, against its projected revenue target of N11.04 trillion for the year, leaving a balance of about N7 trillion to be realised before the end of the fiscal year.
The Senate hearing also exposed disputes over alleged non-remittance of operating surpluses by some government agencies.
Representing the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Deputy Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, Bello Gulmare, alleged that the Nigeria Customs Service had an outstanding liability of N8.9 billion arising from the non-remittance of operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) as of 2019.
The claim was strongly rejected by Customs officials. Similarly, the FRC alleged that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) owed N13.9 billion in unremitted operating surpluses between 2023 and 2025.
Responding to the allegation, CAC Registrar-General, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, said the commission had been making efforts to offset the outstanding obligations.
Following the submissions, the Senate Committee on Finance directed the CAC, the FRC, and committee officials to meet and reconcile their records to determine the exact amount outstanding.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Sani Musa (Niger East), instructed that a comprehensive report of the reconciliation exercise be submitted within two weeks ahead of a follow-up engagement with the CAC.
Meanwhile, the committee expressed displeasure over the absence of several agency heads invited to the hearing, including officials of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), and the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi.
Senator Musa warned that the affected agencies must ensure their chief executives appear in person at the committee’s next sitting or face sanctions.
“Heads of agencies who failed to physically attend today’s session must make themselves available at the next hearing or risk severe sanctions in line with the relevant provisions of Senate rules,” the committee chairman warned.
The hearing forms part of the Senate’s ongoing oversight of revenue-generating agencies and efforts to strengthen fiscal accountability, transparency, and compliance with statutory remittance obligations.
