Customs clamps down on duty-free shop operators at Lagos airport

Gboyega Adeoye, Lagos - 14.01.2008

About 60 airport workers have been sent back to the labour market as authorities of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) closed down the duty-free shops at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos.

Operators of the shops were said to have been having problems with the men of the NCS in securing importation license since 2003. The problem got to a peak about a week ago when operators of the shops resumed for work only to meet their offices sealed off.

Duty-free shops are meant to take care of air passengers who are in transit as well as departing passengers. The goods being sold in the shops are free from duties and being sourced both locally and abroad.

But trouble started about four years ago when the NCS refused to issue out importation licenses to the operators. The development worsened the situation of the operators who now had to source for their goods locally even as they paid through their noses to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) which charges them on their rented shops.

Nigerian Tribune investigations revealed that about N15 million was being generated on the three duty-free shops at the Lagos airport alone.

A source among the operators who spoke on condition of anonymity said it had not been easy coping with the rent since 2003 when their ordeal started.