Customs Budget N14.39bn to Purchase Luxury Vehicles for Senior Officers

The Nigeria Customs Service will spend a staggering N14.39bn on new luxurious vehicles for its senior officers in 2025.

This is part of a larger N35.27bn budget for 579 official vehicles, according to the service’s proposed appropriation bill obtained by Punch correspondent on Wednesday.

Out of the total 579 vehicles, the senior officers would take the majority.

The most expensive of these vehicles are intended for officers at the ranks of Comptroller, Assistant Comptroller-General, and Deputy Comptroller-General, with unit prices ranging from N44m to N75m.

Among the brands to be acquired are BYD hybrids, CHANGAN, MAXUS D90, NISSAN MG5, MIKANO, and NORD vehicles.

The breakdown includes 20 CHANGAN CS95 vehicles for ACGs at N68m each, totalling N1.36bn; 15 MAXUS D90 SUVs for DCGs at N70m each, totalling N1.05bn and 20 QIN BYD Hybrid sedans for ACGs at N65m each, totalling N1.3bn.

Others are 15 HAN BYD Hybrid sedans for DCGs at N75m each, totalling N1.125bn; 180 sedans for Comptrollers, comprising NORD C3, MIKANO CHAGGAN EADO, and NISSAN MG5—each at N44.625m each, totalling N9.55bn.

The proposal also includes 50 NORD TUSK trucks, 50 NISSAN NAVARA trucks, 100 JIM 4WD trucks, and 10 30-seater buses for various administrative and operational purposes.

The allocation has sparked strong criticism from civil society advocates who described the plan as wasteful and insensitive, especially given the country’s harsh economic realities.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, earlier in the year, said the service recorded 397 seizures of vehicles worth N5.64bn in 2024, along with thousands of bags of rice and other restricted goods in a bid to protect local industries and enforce import regulations.

In 2023, the Service seized 3,491 vehicles, with a Duty Paid Value of N2bn.