Nigeria is rethinking its import tariffs as a part of an effort to curb meals inflation and ease entry to manufacturing inputs, Jumoke Oduwole, the commerce minister stated on Thursday, signalling a attainable commerce coverage change as worth strain mounts.
The disclosure got here on the second ministerial assembly of the Nigeria–United States Industrial and Funding Partnership in Lagos, the place officers from each international locations assessed progress below a five-year commerce framework signed in 2024.
Oduwole stated her ministry, working with the Ministry of Finance, has “undertaken a tariff evaluation” aimed toward “recalibrating commerce measures” to enhance industrial competitiveness.
“This work is being tackled fastidiously and strategically to help home manufacturing and create extra predictable and environment friendly situations for commerce and funding,” she added.
Some consultants say the evaluation might end in decrease duties on choose imports.
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“You may’t deliver down inflation by rising tariffs,” stated Michael Olawale-Cole, second deputy president of The Nigerian Affiliation of Chambers of Commerce, Business, Mines, and Agriculture (NACCIMA).
He instructed BusinessDay that the federal government might “deliver down” duties to ease the price of doing enterprise for Nigeria’s industrial and agricultural sectors, which rely closely on imported tools and uncooked supplies.
“In case your items are dearer than the one being imported, then you’re dropping out. And the explanation why they’re costly is as a result of you might have the next value of manufacturing,” he stated.
“So it’s very attainable that by taking a look at some new charges that might not be aggressive, they need to slash them…to make it extra reasonably priced for industries.”
Nigeria has struggled with persistently excessive meals inflation, although current information, following a rebasing of inflation metrics, level to some aid. Meals inflation eased to 10.84 p.c in December 2025 from 39.84 p.c a 12 months earlier, whereas core inflation slowed to 18.63 p.c from 29.28 p.c over the identical interval.
Producers have beforehand warned that import duties on important inputs, mixed with foreign-exchange charges of ~N1,500 to the greenback coupled with excessive logistics prices, have raised manufacturing bills and weakened home output.
The Finance ministry not too long ago suspended a 4 p.c Customs free-on-board levy on imports that had drawn robust opposition from companies.
Nonetheless, Olawale-Cole, who sits on the board of the Nigerian Rural Supplies Council, cautions towards relying too closely on tariff cuts
He stated producers should “benefit from native markets,” warning that extreme dependence on imports might undermine efforts to strengthen native industries.
However Nigerian companies won’t be the one ones happy within the case of a tariff minimize.
The commerce minister’s announcement was made in entrance of senior US commerce and agriculture officers at a second of heightened commerce sensitivity, after the Trump administration final 12 months imposed a 15 p.c tariff on Nigerian exports.
With the US’ more and more transactional strategy to commerce relations, a discount in import tariffs could possibly be interpreted as a conciliatory sign towards the nation, which has since 2024 requested for the removing of import bans that Nigeria at present locations on as much as 25 merchandise.
Brad McKinney, deputy assistant secretary of the US Industrial Service, stated on the assembly that each international locations had been eager to maneuver the proposals introduced by the Industrial and Funding Partnership (CIP) working group “from dialogue to outcomes.
The partnership has a specific concentrate on infrastructure, agriculture and the digital financial system, sectors recognized by the personal sector as providing the best scope for deeper business engagement.
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Jason Hafemeister, performing affiliate administrator for International Agricultural Service on the U.S. Division of Agriculture, stated outcomes might present “consistency, predictability and openness” for farmers, who “have to have the arrogance {that a} market will likely be open for them earlier than they put the seed within the floor.”
He considers Nigeria’s and his nation’s agricultural sectors to be “very complementary.”
“Among the issues we develop greatest don’t develop nicely right here and a number of the issues that develop nicely right here, we can’t produce. So we stay up for nearer financial ties that profit each international locations,” Hafemeister stated.
Commerce in items and providers between Nigeria and the US totalled about $13 billion in 2024, in keeping with official figures, with Nigerian exports nonetheless dominated by oil and vitality.
The federal government has stated increasing non-oil exports and bettering entry to the U.S. market stay central to its commerce technique.
