Abuja, Aug. 7, 2024 – Bashir Adeniyi, the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, says the service will begin implementation of the duty waiver on imported foods in a week.
Adeniyi said this in Abuja on Tuesday during a joint press conference by the heads of Security and service chiefs convened by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa.
He said that the guidelines for the implementation of the waiver werebeing worked out at the Ministry of Finance.
Adeniyi appealed to Nigerians to exercise patience, adding that efforts were ongoing to address the demands of the protesters, especially concerning the food inflation and cost of living.
“I like to let Nigerians know that there has been a lot that is going on to address these issues that are related to ameliorating this situation.
“This is through a mixture of fiscal policies of government and a number of strategic interventions from the government.
“The Federal Government’s effort as part of intervention is the distribution of strategic food items which was released from the national grain reserves about a month ago.
“This was released to all states of the federation. We also recall that a number of the food items that are consumed in Nigeria are imported,” the President said.
“Better parts of the components are imported and importations are not done off the shelf, it takes some time before they are done.
“So, one of the things that the president has done is to reduce the cost, to push on the effects of cost inflation by suspending customs duties and taxes on imported food items for a period of time.
“We believe that when this is implemented, it will help to bring down the price of food items in the market.”
“But I also like to remind Nigerians that we need to be very, very careful in implementation of this and this is why the guidelines for implementation is being meticulously worked out at the Ministry of Finance,” he said.
“There is the issue of striking a balance between the long-term interest of Nigerian farmers and stakeholders who are involved in the production of these items and the short-term interest of addressing food inflation.
“So, the guidelines are being worked out at the Ministry of Finance and I can assure you that within the next one week, these guidelines will be ready and Nigeria customs will begin implementation of these particular fiscal policies,” he said.
