Includes information on average tariff rates and types that U.S. firms should be aware of when exporting to the market
Last Published: 8/13/2019

Nigeria began the implementation of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Common External Tariffs (CET) on January 1, 2015 in compliance with ECOWAS Heads of State’s adoption of a five-band regional CET.   ECOWAS CET seeks to liberalize trade in line with WTO guidelines by harmonizing tariff charges within ECOWAS countries and strengthening its common market vis-à-vis non-member countries. Nigeria is among ten ECOWAS member countries which have adopted the CET thus far. ECOWAS expects the remaining five countries to adopt the CET by January 2017.  However, member countries, including Nigeria, can continue to employ restrictive trade policies on many food and agricultural products.

Nigeria maintains several supplemental levies and duties on selected imports that significantly raise effective tariff rates. For example, Nigeria has an effective duty (Tariff, Levy, Excise and Value Added Tax (VAT) where applicable) of 50% or more on over 80 tariff lines. 
These include about 35 tariff lines whose effective duties exceed the 70% limit set by ECOWAS. Most of these items are luxury goods such as Yachts, Motorboats and other vehicles for pleasure (75%) as well as on alcohol (75% to 95%) and tobacco products (95%). In addition, Nigeria places high effective duty rates on imports into strategic sectors to boost the competitiveness of the local industries. Such sectors are agriculture; where wheat, sugar, rice and tomato paste have effective rates of 85%, 75%, 70% and 50% respectively; and mining, with an effective duty of 70% on salt and 55% on cement. Access a complete list of tariffs, 

In October 2013, the Nigerian government announced an Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP), which seeks to expand domestic vehicle manufacturing.  The NAIDP imposes a 35% levy on automobile imports, over and above the 35% tariff already levied, for an effective total duty of 70%. The NAIDP allows companies that manufacture or assemble cars in Nigeria to import one vehicle for every one manufactured in Nigeria. 
 

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.