41 import items banned by Central bank of Nigeria for Forex Exchange
In today’s article, I am going to explain with simplicity what it means for import item not valid for forex and the list of import items banned by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). I will take my time to give instance on different scenarios of how the majority of importers fall into this.
First of all, I want to make it clear that the 41 import items or goods are not banned or prohibited by Nigeria customs service and the Federal Government of Nigeria. It means that the importer will be not given assistance for sourcing for the Forex in the commercial bank because of the CBN policies. Let me explain in details. Let us say importer A want to import any of the items from the items before he or she will proceed with issuing Form M. The total amount for shipping and cost of purchase must be in the corporate account. And the next process is to write the CBN through the commercial bank and CBN will give approval letter that the importer can go ahead with importation.
The bottom line is that the Forex (that is the foreign currencies) must be in the domiciliary accounts before the Central Bank of Nigeria can issue approval letter as well as approval of Form M issuance with Nigeria customs service. The mistake many importers make is that they place orders first from foreign merchants without having the knowledge of whether the items they want to import are banned by CBN. The implication of this is that any item that is not valid for forex will be approved by Customs with approval letter from CBN.
Now, let me give you the full list of the items that are not valid for forex in Nigeria since 2016.
List of 41 items banned by Central Bank of Nigeria for importation
1. Rice
2. Cement
3. Margarine
4. Palm kernel/Palm oil products/vegetable oils
5. Meat and processed meat products
6. Vegetables and processed vegetable products
7. Poultry chicken, eggs, turkey
8. Private airplanes/jets
9. Indian incense
10. Tinned fish in sauce(Geisha)/sardines
11. Cold rolled steel sheets
12. Galvanized steel sheets
13.Roofing sheets
14. Wheelbarrows
15. Head pans
16. Metal boxes and containers
17. Enamelware
18. Steel drums
19. Steel pipes
20. Wire rods(deformed and not deformed)
21. Iron rods and reinforcing bard
22. Wire mesh
23. Steel nails
24. Security and razor wine
25. Wood particle boards and panels
26. Wood Fibre Boards and Panels
27. Plywood boards and panels
28. Wooden doors
29. Furniture
30. Toothpicks
31. Glass and Glassware
32. Kitchen utensils
33. Tableware
34. Tiles-vitrified and ceramic
35. Textiles
36. Woven fabrics
37. Clothes
38. Plastic and rubber products, polypropylene granules, cellophane wrappers
39. Soap and cosmetics
40. Tomatoes/Tomatoes pastes
41. Euro bond/Foreign currency Bond/share purchases
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