The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, has disclosed that vehicle importation dropped by 45 per cent in the first quarter of 2024, due to foreign exchange challenges in the country.
Adeniyi, who stated that during a recent interview with newsmen he said that period was very critical for Nigerians and businesses in general because of the volatility in the exchange rates.
“It affected car dealers. We had as much as a 45 per cent decrease in the volume of cars that were brought into Nigeria in that period.
“And they were not the kind of cars that fetched optimum revenue for the customs. Not only cars, but even regular imports were also affected because people could no longer import raw materials as they wanted and the volatility did not allow them to plan for tomorrow,” the CGC stated.
He was optimistic that things had started picking up in the second quarter of the year, saying,
“But we see some relative degree of stability in the second quarter because there are lots of discussions going on. Some at the level of the National Assembly, most of them spearheaded by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, bring on the stakeholders that are involved together, to ensure that we achieve stability.”
Giving an update on the private jet owners’ verification exercise, Adeniyi said that a good number of private jet owners had started leaving Nigeria since the verification announcement was made.
He stated that the jets leaving do not want to be verified.
He stated that since the exercise started some weeks ago, only a few owners had shown up.
“Very few of them have shown up for verification and we gathered from intelligence that a good number of them have been leaving Nigeria since the announcement was given because they would not want to be verified,” he asserted.
According to Adeniyi, when you bring in an aircraft and you register, the next thing would be for the owners to come to Nigeria Customs and account for the customs duty if the jet is going to be used in Nigeria.
The CGC explained that the service started a private jet owners’ verification exercise because more private jets were operating outside the ambits of the law.
“We have seen so many of these aircraft flying and our record tends to show that only a few of them have shown up to pay duty and this is why we are bringing this verification up,” he said.
The CGC disclosed that data obtained from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority revealed that, though many private jets were operating in the country, only a few paid customs duty.
