The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has announced that it exceeded its 2025 revenue target by 10.24 per cent, generating ₦7.28 trillion between January and December 2025 despite multiple government-approved tax waivers and fiscal incentives.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed this while defending the agency’s 2025 budget performance and presenting its 2026 budget proposal before the House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise.
According to him, the Service surpassed its annual target of ₦6.58 trillion by about ₦696 billion, attributing the performance to ongoing reforms in revenue administration, technology deployment, and improved trade facilitation processes.
Adeniyi clarified that an error had appeared in the executive summary of the budget document submitted to lawmakers, stressing that the correct revenue figure for the period remained ₦7.28 trillion.
He noted that the strong performance was recorded despite significant revenue losses arising from fiscal policies introduced by the Federal Government to stimulate key sectors of the economy.
Among the measures cited were the suspension of excise duty on telecommunications services throughout 2025, as well as tax concessions in healthcare, including waivers on pharmaceutical products.
He also highlighted exemptions under the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative, which covered CNG-powered and electric vehicles, as well as import duty exemption certificates that accounted for a significant portion of revenue concessions.
Adeniyi further revealed that approximately ₦34.53 trillion worth of imports benefited from various exemptions and waivers, including military equipment and strategic imports under government intervention programmes.
He added that geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, which disrupted global supply chains in the final quarter of 2025, also affected imports of key commodities such as wheat.
Despite these challenges, the Customs Service maintained that reforms and improved compliance mechanisms helped it surpass its revenue target for the year.
