Customs FX rate for import duties now N1,246/$ — down by 6% in eight days

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has adjusted the foreign exchange (FX) rate for its tariffs and duties to N1,246 per dollar.

TheCable observed that the new rate reflected on the single window trade portal of the federal government, on Monday.

According to information on the portal, the NCS exchange rate reduced by 6.31 percent — from N1,330.26/$ on April 1, to 1,246.67 as at April 8.

On February 2, the customs adjusted the exchange rate for calculating import duties from N951.94 to N1,356.88/$.

On February 3, it was raised to N1, 413.62.

Also, on February 10, 2024, the rate was increased to N1,417.63, N1,444.56 on February 12, and N1,481.48 on February 14.

At the beginning of April, the import duty rate stood at N1,330. 26 and remained unchanged till April 4.

The downward trend continued on April 5 when the rate was N1,260.49 to the greenback.

The customs portal recorded some stability on April 6 and 7 as the import duty rate remained at N1,251.2 per dollar.

TheCable checks on April 8, show that the agency has further reduced its FX rate to N1,246.67.

The customs typically adopts FX rates recommended by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for import duties based on trading activities from the country’s official forex market.

However, checks by TheCable showed that the CBN is yet to update its portal with the weighted average rate at the time of filing this report.

Since the beginning of the year, the apex bank under the leadership of Olayemi Cardoso, has introduced several policies to improve the FX market and strengthen the naira.

Part of the interventions includes the occasional sale of dollars to the bureau de change (BDC) operators to ensure sufficient liquidity in the market.

On February 27, the apex bank resumed the sale of FX to BDCs.

In the first tranche, each “eligible” BDC was allocated $20,000 at the rate of “N1,301/$, while the second tranche of $10,000 was sold to the BDCs at the rate of N1,251/$.

Following the interventions, the apex bank said the economy recorded over $1.5 billion inflow in March.

On April 8, CBN announced another sale of dollars to the BDC operators at the rate of N1,101/$.

According to the apex bank, each BDC operator is to sell the dollars to eligible customers at a rate not exceeding 1.5 percent above the purchase price.

This means that BDCs are not expected to sell above N1,117/$1.

On February 23 the CBN directed customs and other related parties to adopt the closing rate in the official foreign exchange (FX) window for import duty.