Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise has call on the federal government to

peg the custom duty exchange rate at N1,000 per dollar for at least six months.

CPPE director, Muda Yusuf who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday said, the

government needs to tackle the unpredictable nature of the country’s exchange for

cargo clearance to complement fiscal measures to mitigate the cost-of-living crisis in

Nigeria, adding that, the country’s high and volatile exchange rate for import duty

assessment is fueling inflation, cost production and operation costs for manufacturers

and businesses.

He said, it is important to clarify that the proposition is without prejudice to the

ongoing foreign exchange reforms of the present administration, adding that, contrary

to concerns expressed in some quarters, the adoption of a lower exchange rate for the

computation of customs duty would not undermine the current foreign exchange

reforms, stressing that, it is not a request for a concessionary exchange rate for forex

allocation.

The development comes as the federal government recently began a 150-day import

duty waiver for selected staple food items, while, Nigeria’s inflation

dropped in July to 33.95 percent, 2024 for the first since 2022.