The National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) has urged Tinubu to set up a committee to review the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023 and its financing framework.
The body said the current Act is significantly raising the cost of doing business at the nation’s ports and in violation of international trade facilitation standards.
In a letter to President Bola Tinubu, Lucky Amiwero, the National President of the NCMDLCA, highlighted the financial framework embedded in Sections 18, 24, and 44 of the Act, particularly the four per cent Free-on-Board levy on imports, cost-based user fees, advance ruling fees, special service charges, and other multilayered charges tagged as “financing of Customs operations”.
He expressed concern that this would escalate port costs that undermine trade competitiveness.
According to NCMDLCA, these risks inflate port charges, discourage investment, and erode the country’s competitive position in regional trade while also increasing the financial burden on importers, manufacturers, and licensed customs agents.
The group called on the President to establish a committee to align Nigeria’s customs funding and inspection systems with international best practice, “harmonise overlapping agency mandates, and reduce port costs, which are already perceived as the highest in the West and Central African sub-regions.”
“The committee should look at the Nigeria NCS Act 2023 to review the duplication, contradiction, and usurping of powers of the Minister and other agencies overlapping that will conflict and affect the process of clearance with other agencies, to harmonise, simplify, and minimise port cost,” NCMDLCA stated.
The group emphasized the need for Nigeria to adopt Ghana’s Customs processes in financing the service.
Ghana’s Customs operations, according to the group, are funded from about a three per cent share of the total import duty and Value-added tax net collections, which at the same time gets 0.4 per cent that is assigned to the Customs technology platform.
It said Ghana’s system, when compared to Nigeria’s, is a transparent, cost-efficient and internationally compliant approach to funding customs operations.”
Under Ghana’s Export and Import (Amendment) Act 585 of 2000, importers pay an inspection fee capped at two per cent of the total dutiable cost, insurance, and freight value, as the Minister prescribes through legislative instruments, it stated.
“The Federal Government should adopt Ghana Customs processes in financing the NCS, because Ghana’s process is the best. The structure ensures that charges are tied directly to service delivery, simplifies accountability, and prevents arbitrary cost escalation. Ghana’s model demonstrates how a capped, transparent, and proportionate cost structure, coupled with government-managed inspection infrastructure, supports compliance with global standards,” NCMDLCA added.
