On 11 October 2024 the Federal Government issued an Executive Order on increasing local production of healthcare products. Among other things it removed import tariffs and excise duties on pharmaceutical machinery, equipment and accessories, and removed tariffs, excise duties and VAT on active pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients, reagents, packaging and other manufacturing inputs.

For anyone importing a tablet press, that’s the difference between a machine that lands at cost and one that lands with a customs bill attached. Manufacturers had been facing levies of roughly 5 to 25 per cent on healthcare imports before this.

Three things about it get misunderstood, and each one costs money.

One: it was written with an expiry

The waivers and exemptions were announced as effective for two years. The Order dates from October 2024. Work out the arithmetic and you’ll see why we’re flagging it in September 2026.

We can’t tell you from here whether it’s been extended, allowed to lapse, or folded into something else. Policy of this kind moves, and it often moves quietly. What we can tell you is that budgeting a 2027 import on a 2024 concession without checking is a serious way to blow a landed cost model.

Before you commit to a purchase order, confirm the current position directly with PVAC and the Nigeria Customs Service, in writing, dated. Not with a supplier. Not with a blog post, including this one. The concession is real and it’s worth real money, and that’s exactly why it deserves a fresh check every time.

Two: it isn’t open to whoever imports a press

This is the part that catches people. The exemption isn’t attached to the machine. It’s attached to you.

When Customs began implementing the Order, eligibility was limited to pharmaceutical manufacturers recognised by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, holding a valid Tax Identification Number. PVAC publishes two lists that matter: a List of Exempted Materials and a List of Exempted Pharmaceutical Manufacturers. If your company isn’t on the manufacturers list, the exempt materials list does nothing for you.

So the sequence runs the other way round from how most buyers plan it. You don’t import the press and then apply for relief. You get recognised as a manufacturer first, get on the list, then import.

Customs also committed to publishing quarterly reports naming importers, quantities and values of tax-exempt imports. Anyone thinking of borrowing someone else’s eligibility should sit with that for a moment.

Three: most eligible companies didn’t use it

Here’s the figure we find most telling. Between March and August 2025, the Federal Ministry of Health reported that over 6 billion naira in waivers was accessed by 47 manufacturers, out of 115 enrolled.

Sixty-eight enrolled companies took nothing. They had signed up for a concession worth serious money and then didn’t claim it.

We don’t have a survey telling us why. From project work the usual suspects are documentation that didn’t match the exempt materials list, HS codes declared without reference to the schedule, clearing agents who processed the entry the way they always do, and shipments that landed before the paperwork was ready. A waiver you’re entitled to and don’t claim at entry is very hard to recover afterwards.

The VAT change underneath it

Separate from the Order, the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 moved pharmaceutical products from VAT-exempt to zero-rated with effect from 1 January.

That sounds like wording. It isn’t. Under exemption, the VAT you paid on inputs was trapped in your cost of production and passed to the patient. Zero-rating makes it recoverable, and the Act widened recovery to cover services and fixed assets.

Fixed assets includes production machinery. For a manufacturer buying a press, a granulation line and a blister machine, that’s a material change to the true cost of the equipment, and it doesn’t depend on the Executive Order’s timetable. Take it to your tax adviser with the actual invoices rather than assuming it applies.

What to do about it practically

Build two landed cost models, one with relief and one without, and know which one your project survives on. If it only works with the waiver, you’ve got a policy risk sitting in the middle of your business plan and you should say so out loud to whoever is funding it.

Get the HS codes for each machine agreed before shipment, not at the port. Give your clearing agent the exemption documentation in advance and check they’ve actually read it. And keep the correspondence, because concessions get reviewed and the company that can produce a dated approval is in a much better position than the one relying on what everyone knew at the time.

Figures here are drawn from Federal Government and Nigeria Customs Service announcements and press reporting current to September 2026. Rates and schemes change. Verify before you commit money.