Market News

The exchange rate for calculating import duty at the nation’s seaports has strengthened to N1,150 better than the official exchange rate of the naira to the dollar, in a boost to importers.

This followed a further slash of the exchange rate for paying Customs duties at the port by about 7.1 percent to N1,150.16/$, by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Information obtained from the official trade portal of the Nigeria Customs Service revealed that the apex bank slashed the Customs FX duty rate from N1,238.179/$ to N1,150.16 on Tuesday, April 23.

This equals a 7.1 percent reduction in rate compared to the old rate of N1,238.179/$ used for the opening of Form M last week, and a decrease of N88.019 on the dollar needed to clear goods at the port.

The latest slash comes as the naira traded for N1,234.49/$ at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on April 22.

BusinessDay reports that the dollar is also appreciating in the FX market as one dollar was sold for N1,250/$ on the streets on Tuesday morning, up from N1,270/$ on Monday.

The appreciation of the naira was attributed to the apex bank’s sale of $10,000 to the Bureau de Change at a rate of N1,021/$ on Monday.

With the slash in exchange rate, importers who opened Form M on Tuesday had some measures of relief in terms of the money required to pay import duties compared to the importers who opened Form M last week.

This is in line with the apex bank’s new directive that Customs should be using the rate on the date of submitting Form M for calculating import duties.

Reacting to the new rate, Onome Joy, a licensed Customs agent, said the official exchange rate was now floating to a stable rate.

According to her, freight forwarders and importers were hopeful that the rate would plunge further in the coming weeks.