Latest data from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) records indicated that the Federal Government granted N97 billion waiver on the importation of essential food items, including maize, rice, and sorghum, among others, between H2 2024 and the first quarter of this year.
According to the document capturing the fiscal incentives sourced from the Service, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, attributed the gesture to the present administration’s policy measure to frontally tackle the problem of food insecurity
The fiscal relief measure designed for implementation in the second half of 2024 was aimed at reducing the cost of staple food items, particularly rice, wheat, maize, sorghum and sugar and by so doing moderate the surging food inflation and provide economic relief to millions of Nigerians.
The Comptroller-General noted: “The NCS’s duty exemptions on food imports have contributed to recent food price reductions, with effects seen both immediately and over time. The Q1 2025 waivers on maize, N45.3bn free-on-board value, rice N751.6m, and sorghum, N2.3bn, also contributed to lower prices by 12 -18 per cent this year.
“At the same time, the larger exemptions from 2024 on rice, N45.9bn free-on-board value and wheat, N2.8bn, are now showing their full effect after taking time to work through the supply chain” he added.
Adeniyi disclosed that the combination of current and past exemptions helped to explain the gradually falling food inflation rate.
Noting that the implementation of the waiver on affected imported food items faces some initial delay, the NCS boss, however, explained that the 2025 waivers provided additional support towards the efforts targeted at reducing food prices in the country.
He confirmed: “The NBS price data reflects this pattern, where the benefits of duty relief emerge gradually but add up to make food more affordable.”
Investigations on food prices across the markets as well as data from the NBS on monthly inflation rate based on the rebased CPI still reflected that despite the government’s fiscal relief measure on imported food items, the prices remained high.
Analysts attribute this ugly situation to disruptions in food items supply chains due to herdsmen attacks on farmers in major food producing states, particularly Benue State over the past months.
