Nigeria customs duties explained: what you really pay to import

The $300 threshold is the single most important number

Most guides to Nigerian import duty skip this, because it is recent. On 8 September 2025 the Nigeria Customs Service began applying a de minimis threshold of USD 300. Consignments valued at or below it are released free of import duties and related taxes.

The Nigeria Customs Service Board approved it at its 63rd meeting on 2 September 2025, chaired by the Finance Minister, and it was announced by the Service’s national public relations officer. Per the announcement, it covers low-value consignments, e-commerce shipments and passenger baggage, and each individual may use it for up to four importations per year. Reporting on the policy is available from Nairametrics, Premium Times and Vanguard.

Two conditions matter in practice. Prohibited and restricted goods are excluded regardless of value — the threshold is not a way around an import ban. And because the allowance is capped at four uses a year, the sensible pattern is to take the exemption on the orders where it saves the most, not the first four that happen to arrive.

What you actually pay, above the threshold

Nigeria applies the ECOWAS Common External Tariff, which places every product in one of five duty bands. But the duty band alone tells you very little, because four other charges sit around it — and VAT is calculated on top of all of them.

1. Import duty — 0%, 5%, 10%, 20% or 35% of CIF

The band depends on the HS code your goods are classified under. Broadly: 0% for essential social goods, 5% for primary raw materials, 10% for intermediate goods, 20% for finished consumer goods, and 35% for specific protected categories. Critically, it is charged on the CIF value — product price plus freight plus insurance — not on what you paid the store.

2. Surcharge — 7% of the duty

A 7% surcharge is applied to the duty amount itself, not to the value of the goods. On a 20% band that adds 1.4 percentage points of CIF, so it is small but not nothing.

3. CISS — 1% of FOB

The Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme administrative charge is 1% of the FOB value — the goods alone, excluding freight. Note the different base: this is the one line that is not calculated on CIF.

4. ETLS — 0.5% of CIF

The ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme levy funds the regional trade bloc and applies to almost all imports at 0.5% of CIF.

5. VAT — 7.5%, on everything above

Value Added Tax is 7.5%, and it is assessed on CIF plus the duty plus the surcharge plus CISS plus ETLS. Because it comes last and compounds on the other charges, VAT is usually the largest single line after duty itself. The rate stayed at 7.5% under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025, which took effect on 1 January 2026 — a proposed increase was dropped during passage (PwC on the reform acts).

A worked example

A $600 clothing order with $70 of freight and insurance, in the 20% band. This is arithmetic from the published rates rather than a scan of one particular entry, so treat it as the shape of the bill, not a quote:

Total customs charges of $214.43 are about 32% of the CIF value. Against the $600 you paid the store, the landed cost of $884.43 is roughly 1.47x the product price — which is the number worth planning around, and the reason the $300 threshold is so valuable when your order qualifies.

Duty bands for what people actually buy

Indicative bands for common categories. The HS code your clearing agent files is what binds, and some tariff lines carry additional category levies, so confirm before you commit on a large order.

The elevated rates for alcohol, tobacco and vehicles come from the US government’s Nigeria import tariffs guide, which also documents the sector levies applied on top of the CET.

The 4% FOB levy: why some guides are wrong

If you have read that Nigerian imports carry a 4% charge on FOB value, that is not invented — but its status has changed four times, and any guide that states it flatly is unreliable. The timeline:

1. February 2025 — the Nigeria Customs Service begins collecting 4% of FOB value on imports, under the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023.
2. Shortly after — collection is withdrawn following pushback from importers and manufacturers.
3. August 2025 — collection resumes at the ports.
4. 15 September 2025 — the Federal Ministry of Finance directs an immediate suspension, citing trade-facilitation and inflation concerns.

It was designed to replace the 1% CISS charge and the 7% cost-of-collection charge, and to fund Customs modernisation including the B’Odogwu clearance platform. Whether the 7% surcharge would have survived alongside it was never clearly settled — reporting from the August 2025 restart suggested it remained.

As of September 2026 it is suspended, and Customs has said it intends to resume collection once the suspension is lifted. If it returns, budget roughly 4% of your FOB value on top, and ask your clearing agent which of the existing charges came off. The honest position is that this is the one line in Nigerian import costs you should re-check rather than assume.

Four things that make the bill bigger than you calculated

• Freight is taxable. Duty, ETLS and VAT are all assessed on CIF, so the cost of shipping is inside the base you pay duty on. Cheaper shipping reduces your duty as well as your freight.
• VAT compounds. It is applied after duty and every levy, so a higher duty band raises your VAT too. The bands understate the real difference between a 10% and a 20% classification.
• The HS code decides everything. Two products a shopper would consider identical can fall in different bands. If a large order hinges on it, get the code confirmed before you buy, not at the port.
• The customs exchange rate moves. Your naira bill is converted at the rate applied on the day your entry is filed, not the day you ordered. A stable dollar price can still land as a larger naira figure.

Prohibited and restricted goods

Some goods cannot be imported at any duty rate, and the $300 threshold does not apply to them. Nigeria maintains an import prohibition list covering categories that have included used tyres, certain textiles and apparel, some poultry and meat products, and a range of used goods, alongside items needing a permit from a regulator — NAFDAC for food, drugs, cosmetics and medical devices, SON for regulated products.

The list is revised with fiscal policy, so check the current position before ordering anything in a sensitive category. If a forwarder tells you a prohibited item will be fine, that is a reason to stop using them — it is the customer whose money and goods are at risk when a shipment is seized.

Where this leaves you

For most shop-and-ship orders from a US or UK store, the practical rules are short. Under $300 and within your four-a-year allowance, you should pay no duty or VAT. Above it, plan on roughly 1.4–1.5x the product price landed for ordinary 20%-band goods, more if freight is heavy relative to value. Get the HS code confirmed for anything large, and re-check the 4% FOB position before you assume it.

If you would rather not run the arithmetic, paste a product link on our homepage and you will see the full delivered-to-Lagos cost — product, shipping and customs handling — before you pay anything. If you are choosing a forwarder after the Heroshe collapse, our post-mortem and six-point vetting checklist is the place to start.

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