Central Bank raises exchange rate for Customs duties

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the exchange rate for calculating Customs duties at the nation’s seaports by 1.9 percent following further depreciation in the value of the Naira to the dollar. The Customs exchange duty rate was raised from N1, 593.888/$ to N1, 624.732/$1 on Tuesday, information obtained from the official trade portal of the Nigeria Customs Service revealed. With the apex bank’s upward review, the Customs duty rate has increased by 1.9 percent, and it adds over N30 on each dollar needed to clear goods at the port compared to the old exchange of N1,593.888/$1. This means that importers opening Form M today will pay more to clear their goods as import duties are benchmarked against the dollar. Also, importers will open Form M at a higher rate compared to those who opened Form M on Monday, March 11, according to the apex bank’s new directive to Customs to use the rate on the date of submitting Form M for calculating import duties.