Banji Akinola, a businessman from Lagos, has pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to lower the excessive import duties and taxes in order to prevent the demise of private companies.
Akinola encouraged the government to take into consideration a downward review of the duty and other taxes being imposed on private enterprises in the nation while speaking outside of a reception in memory of his late mother, Madam Janet Funmilayo Akinola, in Ado-Ekiti.
He bemoaned the fact that many Nigerians are going out of business as a result of the constant increases in taxes and customs duties and the challenging economic climate in the nation.
According to Akinola, the fee for a car’s clearance has increased by 500%.
He said, “I have been importing goods from Europe and America into Nigeria in the last 30 years. The custom duty is so unfriendly and since the president assumed office about two months ago, specifically May 29, 2023 , the Nigerian Customs has increased the duty two times and the exchange rate was also implemented, it used to be N420 now it is about N850 to a US dollar. A lot of importers have been pushed out of business as a result of this.
“This actually started during President Muhammadu Buhari regime, presently, we now pay as much as 2.5 million naira for the clearance of a car we used to pay just 400 thousand naira to clear. It is now very difficult for an average Nigerian, even a civil servant to buy a fairly used imported car.
“Before now, as one of the top vehicle importers in the country, I can afford to put 40 to 50 vehicles in a Ship for importation to Nigeria, infact, in a year, I do import 500 to 600 into the country but now if I can make 20, 30 then I have tried. The bar of the custom duty was raised by the last government, then the present government came with the liberalisation of the exchange rate which pushed up the duty, they did it twice and that really affected the importation of goods adversely.
He however, sympathised with the federal government whom he said took the step to shore up its internally generated revenues to prosecute some projects “but whatever they intend to do, they are over taxing people”.
“What we are experiencing now is over taxation and this has really dealt a severe blow to our businesses. I am now trying to diversify to other businesses, because relying only on importation is so difficult, the exchange rate and the custom duty is killing”.