Customs to clamp down on private jet owners, summons Dangote, Adenuga, Adeleke, 77 others

The Nigeria Customs Service has moved to clampdown on owners of private jets in the country, as no fewer than 80 operators and owners of such jets in the country are expected to appear at the headquarters of the Service in Abuja with their aircraft import documents.

Some of the prominent Nigerians who own private jets include Aliko Dangote, Founder of Dangote Group; Mike Adenuga, CEO of Globacom Ltd; Adedeji Adeleke, President of Adeleke University and elder brother to Osun Governor Ademola Adeleke; Allen Onyema, CEO of Air Peace and Arthur Eze, CEO of Atlas Oranto Petroleum.

Others are Igho Sanomi; Cletus Madubugwu Ibeto, CEO of The Ibeto Group; Apostle Johnson Suleman – General overseer of Omega Fire Ministries; Dr. ABC Orjiako, Chairman and co-founder of Seplat Oil and Femi Otedola, Chairman of Geregu Power Plc and FBN Holdings Plc.

The special aircraft import verification exercise is expected to commence on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 and is expected to last for 30 days, according to a public notice issued by Customs.

The notice read in part, “The Nigeria Customs Service announces a verification exercise for privately owned aircraft operating in Nigeria. This exercise aims to identify improperly imported private aircraft without documentation, ensuring proper imports and maximum revenue collection.”

According to the notice, owners and operators of private jets in the country are to come with some relevant documents.

These include aircraft Certificate of Registration, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority’s Flight Operation Compliance Certificate, NCAA’s Maintenance Compliance Certificate, NCAA’s Permit for Non-Commercial Flights, and Temporary Import Permit (if applicable).

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The latest plan to clamp down on operators of improperly imported private jets came more than one year after the Federal Government suspended the action.

In the past three years, the government had planned to recover import duty running into billions of naira from some private jet operators who had used certain technical loopholes to evade the payment of import duty.

A few private jet owners paid the mandatory import duty after the Hameed Ali-led NCS took some significant steps to recover the revenue.

However, several owners and operators of private jets in the country have yet to pay the statutory duty.

Many private aircraft operators in the country have allegedly explored technical loopholes in the regulation to fraudulently obtain a Temporary Import Permit from the Nigeria Customs Service instead of paying the statutory import duty on their imported aircraft.

The TIP, which is valid for an initial period of 12 months, can be extended by six months twice, according to the regulations.

National Public Relations Officer, NCS, Abdullahi Maiwada, on Monday, confirmed the verification exercise, which is scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

“All we are doing is to ensure maximum revenue collection for the Federal Government. Relevant sections of our extant laws and regulations will guide our actions and inaction during and after the exercise.”

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