President Buhari Waives Import Duty for Medical Supplies

• President Buhari Waives Import Duty for Medical Supplies

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday approved the waivers of import duty and VAT for medical equipment and supplies for a period of six months effective from 1st May 2020.

This was confirmed in a tweet put out by the presidency office on Thursday.

The office of the president explained that the waivers are in line with government measures to cushion the effect of COVID-19 on the health sector and give the sector the needed support to grow post-pandemic.

“These waivers are the latest of the fiscal policies measures introduced by @NigeriaGov to combat the economic implications of the #COVID19 pandemic, and to support the strengthening of health infrastructure in Nigeria,” the tweet stated.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, had said the government would engage each sector to know their immediate needs.

“We do not want to go and say that we are reducing taxes for companies. Some of the companies, for example, the pharmaceutical industry, what they would want is to fast track processes to bring in materials to produce more drugs,” she said.

Ahmed said: “We will be giving them import duty waivers, we will be giving them support to air freight their cargo, because supply chains are broken across the world. There is a need to fast track import of materials that are needed to produce drugs within the country, so we have to have those engagements to be more specific.”