Prices of goods are expected to experience shard drop in local markets across the country as the Central Bank of Nigeria has reduced exchange rate for computing import duty on cargoes imported into the country at the nation’s seaports and airports by 19.2% in the last two weeks.
To this effect, prices of imported finished goods such as Cement, food items, sugar, drugs and other raw materials are expected to drop significantly.
The manufacturers of these products have attributed high Customs exchange rate as reasons for the increase in price in the past few months but the reduction is expected to see downward price movement in coming months.
BUSINESSINSIDERNG gathered that the exchange rate had experienced 19.2% reduction that is N309 between March 15 to 29,2024.
It was also revealed that the reduction is the seventh time in the last two weeks.
The reduction as monitored by our Correspondent on the Nigeria Trade Hub are as follow:
15th March 2024: N1,612/$1
16th March 2024: N1,593/$1
19th March 2024: N1,572/$1
23rd March 2024: N1,448/$1
26th March 2024: N1,405/$1
28th March 2024: N1,364/$1
29th March 2024: N1,303/$1
To this end, importers that opened Form M, on Wednesday, will pay less to clear their cargoes as import duties are benchmarked against the dollar.
Also, importers will open Form M at a lower rate on Friday 29th March, 2024 compared to those who opened Form M on Thursday, 28th March, 2024 according to the apex bank’s new directive to Customs to use the rate on the date of submitting Form M for calculating import duties.