The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the federal agency responsible for border controls and the collection of import and export duties in Africa’s most populous country, has issued a clarification on how foreign exchange rates are applied in customs valuation, following public debate about pricing, investor behaviour, and trade costs.
In a statement dated Monday, February 16, 2026, the Service said it uses the B’Odogwu platform, which it described as a Unified Customs Management System and the sole official system for customs declarations, clearance, and valuation in Nigeria. The NCS said it was necessary to explain the process because exchange rates directly affect how imported and exported goods are valued for duty assessment, which in turn influences business costs and government revenue.
The Service said it does not set or adjust foreign exchange rates used for customs valuation. Instead, it stated that all exchange rates applied within the B’Odogwu platform are official rates sent electronically by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria’s national monetary authority that determines exchange rate policy under the country’s monetary framework. Okay News reports that the NCS said these rates are automatically integrated and applied across all customs offices to support transparency, predictability, and audit integrity.
According to the statement, the B’Odogwu system runs on structured data integration protocols that ingest and apply the exchange rate information received from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The NCS said the system does not generate, substitute, or alter rates under any circumstances. It added that where the format of incoming data changes, the platform is designed to keep the last valid Central Bank-provided rate until the updated feed is successfully processed, which it said helps maintain continuity and valuation integrity.
The Nigeria Customs Service also addressed reports that cited an exchange rate of Nigeria’s naira (₦) 1,451.63 to $1 for Friday, February 6, 2026, saying that figure did not come from the B’Odogwu system. The Service said the figure was taken from trade.gov.ng, which it described as a legacy public trade information portal that does not reflect live customs processing data. It also said the National Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS) does not provide real-time valuation figures and is not recognised as a live customs processing platform.
For transparency, the Service said the exchange rate applied for customs valuation on Friday, February 6, 2026 was ₦1,365.56 to $1, as communicated by the Central Bank of Nigeria. It added that subsequent rates used by the Service have also reflected official Central Bank rates transmitted and implemented automatically through B’Odogwu.
The NCS said it is working with the Central Bank of Nigeria to strengthen technical integration through Application Programming Interface (API)-based connectivity, which it said would improve real-time transmission, operational reliability, and system resilience.
The statement was signed by Abdullahi Maiwada, a Deputy Comptroller of Customs and the National Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, speaking for the Comptroller-General of Customs.
