The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has slashed the exchange rate for calculating Customs duties at the nation’s seaports by 0.7 percent following the further strengthening of the naira in the foreign exchange market.
CBN slashed the Customs FX duty rate from N1,246.665/$ to N1,238.179/$ on Monday, according to information obtained from the official trade portal of the Nigeria Customs Service.
This represents a 0.7 percent reduction in rate compared to the old rate of N1,246.665/$ used for the opening of Form M before now, and a decrease of N8.486 on a dollar needed to clear goods at the port.
This means importers that open Form M on Monday, April 15 will have some measures of relief in terms of the money required to pay import duties compared to the importer who opened Form M earlier.
Using the Form M exchange rate to calculate import duties is in line with the apex bank’s directive that Customs should be using the rate on the date of submitting Form M for calculating import duties.
The slash in exchange rate for paying import duty is coming on the back of continuous appreciation of the naira in the foreign exchange market with the naira trading at N1,142.38/$ at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on April 12.
The FMDQ Securities Exchange revealed that the naira gained 7.72 percent as the dollar was quoted at N1,142.38 on Friday, stronger than N1,230.61/$1 quoted on Monday last week at the NAFEM.
BusinessDay reports that the foreign exchange market opened on Monday with the naira, exchanging flat with the US dollars at 1,120 on the parallel market.
This represents a N5 appreciation compared to N1,125 per dollar closed on Friday on the black market, according to the data BusinessDay collated from street traders and the online exchange rate collating platforms.
Also, the naira recorded a four-month high of 1,142.38 per dollar at the official foreign exchange market as dollar supply increased on Friday.(BusinessDay)
