Lifting Nigeria’s high tariffs and import bans could significantly increase tax revenue for Africa’s most populous country, the World Bank said.
The customs service could see revenue rise by 66% if they were scrapped, the Washington-based lender said in a biannual development report on the nation Monday. Such a move would also lower poverty rates by an estimated 2.6 percentage points, it said.
“Reducing tariffs and import bans would confer direct benefits to consumers,” Alex Sienaert, the World Bank’s lead economist for Nigeria said at an event in Abuja, the capital.
The bank’s proposed reforms would lower prices, providing “relief in the context of high cost of living pressures,” he said. Nigerian inflation has been in double digits since 2016.
Africa’s largest oil producer currently has import bans on cement, food items like spaghetti and noodles, certain types of footwear, and over-the-counter drugs such as paracetamol and multivitamins.
The average tariff rate in the nation is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa’s, the bank said.
The bans were put in place by previous governments in a bid to boost local production, but have led to greater tax and customs evasion, the bank said. They’ve also increased prices by an estimated 5.8% on average, it said.
