‘Nigeria Export Trade Achieved Significant Rise In 2024’ – Customs

BY FUNMI ALUKO

Despite observable lull in global trade activities especially with regards to noticeable abuses by operators granted waivers , Nigeria export performance recorded a significant resilience in its growth trajectory with an overall headwind in the volume of traded goods.

The Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi who disclosed this while briefing the press on the activities of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for the year ended 2024, said that at ₦136.65 trillion in 2024 up from ₦42.77 trillion in 2023, representing 219.5% increase, the total cost insurance freight (CIF) value gained marks a significant scorecard expected to do even better, all things being equal.

He explained that while a total of 12.35 billion kilograms exports were processed in 2024 compared to 3.70 billion kilograms in 2023, the difference account for an impressive 234% increase in export mass.

“Our export trade performance was equally impressive, with the total CIF value rising significantly to ₦136.65 trillion in 2024 from ₦42.77 trillion in 2023, marking a 219.5% increase.

“While the number of export transactions remained relatively stable at 38,199 compared to 38,294 in 2023, we witnessed a substantial increase in export volume, processing 12.35 billion kilograms in 2024 compared to 3.70 billion kilograms in 2023.

“This 234% increase in export mass, coupled with the higher value, indicates a robust growth in our export trade and suggests increasing competitiveness of Nigerian products in the international market”, he stated.

Still on trade facilitation, the CGC said: “The total trade value handled by the Service in 2024 amounted to ₦196.94 trillion, compared to ₦70.50 trillion in 2023, representing a 179.3% increase.

“This substantial growth in trade value, achieved with fewer but more valuable transactions, is evident of the increasing sophistication of Nigeria’s international trade and the effectiveness of our trade facilitation measures.”

Adeniyi expressed satisfaction with the commitment so far demonstrated by the service in the deployment of new trade tools to improve performance, which according to propelled a significant growth rebound in trade performance data for 2024.

“At the beginning of 2024, the Service made several commitments towards modernizing our operations and enhancing service delivery. Despite our impressive revenue performance, we remained conscious of the need to strike a balance between revenue collection and trade facilitation.

“This balance was evident in our commitments at the beginning of the year and also served as a milestone for gauging performance throughout 2024. They were further reiterated during the Comptroller-General of Customs Conference held later in the year.

”The trade performance data for 2024 reflects significant growth in trade value despite global economic headwinds.”

On import, he said, “The Service processed imports with a Cost, Insurance, and Freight (CIF) value of ₦60.29 trillion in 2024, representing a remarkable 117.4% increase from ₦27.74 trillion in 2023. This was achieved through 1,262,988 import transactions, handling a total mass of 15.35 billion kilograms.

“The higher value recorded despite an 8.2% decrease in transaction volume from the previous year’s 1,376,514 transactions indicates a shift towards higher-value goods in our import trade portfolio.”

On total revenue receipts for 2024, Adeniyi announced the collection of a total sum of ₦6,105,315,543,489.50 (Six Trillion, One Hundred and Five Billion, Three Hundred and Fifteen Million, Five Hundred and Forty-Three Thousand, Four Hundred and Eighty-Nine Naira, Fifty Kobo), representing 20.2% increase over and above the service revenue target for 2024.

“The Nigeria Customs Service has again recorded another unprecedented performance in revenue collection for the year 2024. The Service collected a total sum of ₦6,105,315,543,489.50 (Six Trillion, One Hundred and Five Billion, Three Hundred and Fifteen Million, Five Hundred and Forty-Three Thousand, Four Hundred and Eighty-Nine Naira, Fifty Kobo), surpassing our target of ₦5,079,069,866,085.50 by ₦1,026,245,677,404.00, representing a 20.2% increase above the target.

“This remarkable achievement represents a significant 90.4% increase from our 2023 collection of ₦3,206,583,002,675.65. The growth is historic as it marks the highest Year-on-Year increase recorded by the Service in recent times, surpassing the 52.24% growth recorded in 2022 by 38.18 percentage points.”

While explaining the distribution of the various receipt components, the customs boss listed the federation account, non-federation account and the Value Added Tax (VAT) account being the three statutory state coffers revenue are domiciled.

He further explained that while the sum of ₦3,657,063,981,445.42 was collected for the Federation Account which consist of Import Duty, Excise Duty, Fees, E-Auction proceeds, and CET Levy; a total of ₦816,902,844,844.73 was collected as Non-Federation Account levies; with the sum of ₦1,631,348,717,199.35 collected as VAT on imports.

The CGC noted that the impressive scorecard were despite the regime of waivers granted to some operators, even as he hinted of abuses of some of the waivers.

“It is pertinent to note that these collections were achieved despite significant concessions granted to support various sectors of the economy, totaling ₦1,682,302,648,880.67. These concessions comprised ₦723,000,081,776.68 in import duty waivers, ₦372,649,650,951.72 in other levy concessions, and ₦586,652,916,152.27 in import VAT relief. These strategic concessions were granted to stimulate economic growth, support industrial development, and enhance the overall business environment in line with government policy objectives.

“Notably, the 2024 concession value represents a significant reduction from the ₦3,959,868,268,993.18 recorded in 2023. This reduction is a direct result of our enhanced monitoring mechanisms and strategic reforms aimed at blocking loopholes and eliminating abuses in the concession granting process, ensuring that only genuine and qualifying enterprises benefit from these incentives.”

Adeniyi reiterated the commitment of the service under his watch to continue to align with policy objective of President Bola Tinubu led government.

”These achievements were made possible through our continuous alignment with the policy objectives of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, under the astute guidance of the Honourable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Olawale Edun, and the support of Management and the entire staff of Nigeria Customs Service.”