Nigeria may have lost more than US$600 million in customs duties and value-added tax (VAT) over the past three decades due to the alleged illegal sale of empty shipping containers by foreign shipping companies operating in the country, a trade expert has claimed.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, trade consultant Okey Ibeke called on the Nigeria Customs Service to suspend the sale of empty containers by shipping firms pending a comprehensive audit of the industry.
The remarks followed reports that Grimaldi Agency Nigeria plans to sell more than 2,500 empty containers to members of the public.
According to Ibeke, the issue is not the pricing of the containers but their legal status under Nigerian customs regulations.
He argued that the containers entered Nigeria under a temporary import regime, which permits their use for transporting cargo but requires them to be re-exported unless they are formally converted into permanent imports through customs procedures.
More Read
Under such procedures, import duties, VAT and other levies must be assessed and paid before the containers can legally be sold within the country, he said.
Ibeke alleged that some shipping companies have bypassed these requirements, resulting in substantial revenue losses for the government.
Using current customs tariff rates applicable to containers, he estimated that the government could lose between US$350 and US$400 in duties and taxes on every container sold without proper conversion.
More Read
Based on the reported sale of 2,500 containers, he said the potential revenue loss from a single transaction could range from US$875,000 to US$1 million.
He further claimed that if hundreds of thousands of containers have been sold locally over the past 30 years without the required customs processes, cumulative losses could exceed $375 million in unpaid duties and taxes, equivalent to more than 600 billion naira at current exchange rates.
The containers are widely used across Nigeria as retail shops, storage units, cold rooms and building materials, creating a secondary market that has grown alongside the country’s expanding import trade.
Ibeke linked the issue to Nigeria’s longstanding trade imbalance, noting that most shipping vessels arrive fully loaded but often leave with limited containerised exports.
According to him, the high cost of returning empty containers abroad creates an economic incentive for shipping lines to dispose of them locally rather than repatriate them.
He argued that the practice may contravene provisions of the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023, foreign exchange regulations, port authority guidelines and shipping sector rules governing local transactions.
The trade expert urged customs authorities to conduct a system-wide audit of shipping companies operating in Nigerian ports and reconcile port records with import manifests to identify containers that were neither re-exported nor properly converted into permanent imports.
He also called for the recovery of outstanding duties, taxes and penalties where violations are established.
The allegations have not been independently verified, and no official findings have been released by the Nigeria Customs Service.
Industry observers note that any formal investigation could have significant implications for shipping operators, customs administration and government revenue collection efforts.
The claims come as Nigerian authorities intensify efforts to boost non-oil revenues, strengthen tax compliance and reduce fiscal pressures through improved enforcement of customs and tax regulations.
If substantiated, the allegations would highlight potential gaps in the monitoring of temporary imports and the broader challenge of ensuring compliance across Nigeria’s maritime and logistics sectors.
