By Joy Odor Reportcircle News
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Monday moved to calm mounting anxiety across Nigeria’s trading corridors after a wave of complaints from importers and clearing agents triggered speculation that Customs had quietly adjusted the foreign-exchange rate used for calculating duties.
In a detailed clarification released in Abuja, the Service drew a hard line: it does not set the exchange rate used in cargo valuation the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) does.
The intervention comes after a controversial ₦1,451.63/$ figure circulated in trade circles last week, sparking fears of higher import costs and a fresh surge in consumer prices.
For days, freight forwarders and importers struggled to reconcile duty assessments appearing to reflect a different naira-dollar value from market expectations.
Businesses feared the Customs valuation mechanism had been altered without notice, a move capable of instantly inflating landing costs across sectors from food to manufacturing inputs.
But Customs said the uproar was built on a faulty data source.
According to the Service, the figure circulating did not originate from its processing platform but from a public trade information portal that does not provide live clearance data.
“We Don’t Touch the Exchange Rate”
In its most categorical language yet, Customs stated it neither determines nor modifies foreign-exchange rates used for import valuation.
Instead, the rate is electronically transmitted by the Central Bank and automatically applied nationwide through its digital clearance system known as B’Odogwu, the unified platform now used for declarations and valuation.
The implication is significant: any fluctuation in duty payable is a direct reflection of monetary policy transmission, not Customs discretion.
Officials stressed the system applies a single official rate across all commands, removing human intervention and eliminating regional disparities that previously plagued cargo clearance.
Customs disclosed that the official exchange rate applied for valuation on 6 February 2026 was ₦1,365.56 per dollar the rate supplied by the Central Bank.
The higher figure, it said, came from a legacy government portal that does not feed real-time valuation data into clearance operations.
The agency further clarified that the older NICIS platform also does not produce live duty computation figures.
In effect, businesses relying on unofficial dashboards were pricing imports against the wrong benchmark.
Inside the Digital Clearance Engine
The B’Odogwu platform automatically ingests exchange-rate data from the apex bank.
Where transmission formats change or are delayed, the system temporarily retains the last valid official rate rather than generate a new one, a safeguard designed to prevent arbitrary valuation.
Customs added it is now working with the Central Bank to implement direct API connectivity that will enable real-time rate transmission, a move expected to eliminate timing gaps that occasionally fuel speculation.
The clarification arrives at a sensitive moment for Nigeria’s inflation outlook.
Import duties calculated using the official exchange rate directly influence landing costs for fuel additives, pharmaceuticals, machinery, food items and raw materials. Even minor rate misunderstandings can ripple into retail prices within days.
By distancing itself from exchange-rate determination, Customs effectively signalled that price pressures tied to duty valuation are monetary not administrative in origin.
The Service insisted its role remains enforcement and facilitation, not currency management, promising predictable valuation aligned with fiscal and monetary policy.
For traders, the message is blunt:
Watch the Central Bank rate not rumours because that is what determines your duty bill at the port.
Abdullahi Maiwada for the Comptroller-General, the statement underscores an attempt to restore confidence in port pricing at a time when exchange-rate volatility already sits at the heart of business planning in Africa’s largest economy.
