Importing a used car from China to Nigeria

Most first-time importers price the car and the freight, then get surprised at the port. On a USD 23,800 vehicle, duty, levy, VAT and Green Tax come to about USD 9,900 — roughly 40% of the price of the car. And the rules changed on 1 July 2026: any page that still quotes a 15% NAC levy is working from last year's numbers. This page shows the whole arithmetic, line by line.

What you are actually paying for

A car bought from China for export has two separate cost stacks. The first is everything up to the ship: the vehicle itself, export handling, and getting it to Nansha. The second is everything after the ship: freight, insurance, tax, certification and clearing. Importers who only budget the first stack run out of money at Apapa.

The table below is a complete landed-cost calculation for one real unit — a 2021 Hilux 2.8D 4x4 double cab, which is the kind of vehicle we regularly ship to Lagos. The tax rates are Nigeria's published rates; the freight is a 2026 booking figure.

Landed in Lagos, that vehicle costs about 1.6 times its FOB price. That multiplier — not the sticker price — is the number to plan around.

The three rules that decide whether your car is allowed in

Price is the easy part. These are the three that get shipments rejected, and none of them can be fixed after the vessel sails.

• 12-year age ceiling. Nigeria caps used-vehicle imports at 12 years. One source we track cites 8 years, so the final determination is made against the customs VIN database — we check the exact build year before quoting, and we will not book a unit that sits close to the line.
• Left-hand drive only. Right-hand-drive vehicles are refused. Every car we export is factory LHD; we do not convert cars, and a conversion is not accepted as LHD at Nigerian customs.
• SONCAP and VehCAP obtained before sailing. Both have to be issued in China, against the actual unit, before loading. A car that arrives without them sits at the port incurring rent until it is either certified or returned — and returning it costs more than the car. Nigeria is the one destination here with two vehicle certificates, not one.

How the tax is built

Nigeria charges six separate lines on a used vehicle, and they stack. The second one was cut in half on 1 July 2026, and the fifth one is new:

Two traps sit in that table. The obvious one is the second line: the NAC levy on used vehicles was 15% until 1 July 2026 and is 5% now, so most of what is written about Nigerian car duty online is a year out of date. The less obvious one is the last line: VAT is charged on CIF plus the duty, the surcharge and the ETLS levy, not on CIF alone.

Added up correctly on the example above, the bill is USD 9,874, which is 38.0% of CIF. Plan with 38%, and treat it as a floor — customs assesses on its own valuation of your VIN, not on our invoice.

Both ways of getting this wrong are expensive. If you are still using the pre-July figure of 20 + 15 + 7.5, you are over-stating the bill by about USD 1,800 on this car — enough to walk away from a deal that would have worked. If you add 20 + 5 + 7.5 and stop there, you are under-stating it by about USD 1,400, because the surcharge and the VAT stacking are missing.

What it takes, in order

1. You send the brief — model, year range, quantity, destination port.
2. We locate units in China and come back with options, photos and an FOB price per unit. The price is quoted FOB Nansha, which means the car is yours once it is loaded, not once it is delivered.
3. You approve a unit. Contract and deposit, then a 68-point inspection with photo and video evidence before anything is paid in full.
4. Export declaration, certification and loading at Nansha. The original bill of lading, invoice and certificate are couriered to you, not sent with the car.
5. Ocean transit runs 35–45 days to Lagos, then clearance at Apapa or Tin Can Island.

Realistically, from the day you approve a unit to the day it is cleared in Lagos, plan on six to eight weeks. Anything quoted faster is either a car already sitting in a bonded yard or a promise that will slip.

The document set you need before the car moves

Every unit leaves China with the same core set. Missing one stalls the shipment at the port, and none of them can be produced retrospectively from Nigeria — they are issued in China, against that specific vehicle.

• Commercial Invoice
• Packing List
• Bill of Lading
• Export Declaration
• Certificate of Origin
• Inspection Report
• Purchase Invoice
• Transfer of Title
• SONCAP / VehCAP / PVoC support
• COC / ECTN support

Two of these are the ones people forget. The certificate of origin is what lets customs apply the correct tariff line, and the SONCAP and VehCAP certificates cannot be obtained after the vessel sails — they are issued against the vehicle before loading.

Before you pay a deposit

• Ask for the build year, not the registration year. Nigeria counts from manufacture. A 2014-built car registered in 2015 is a 2014 car and is one year closer to the ceiling than the advert suggests.
• Get the VIN and check it yourself. A VIN that does not decode, or decodes to a different body style, is the single most common sign of a unit that will fail inspection.
• Ask what the inspection covers. "Inspected" means nothing. Ours is 68 points with photo and video evidence, and you see it before final payment, not after arrival.
• Confirm the port and the shipping method in writing. RoRo and container have different arrival procedures and different terminal charges at Apapa; the quote should say which one you are buying.

Where importers lose money

Most of the expensive mistakes on this route are made before the car is booked, not at the port — we have written those up separately in seven mistakes buyers make when buying from China. The two that belong to this page are the ones that happen after the vessel sails:

• Documents arriving after the car. If the original bill of lading reaches your agent after the vessel berths, you pay rent from day one. Courier the originals the day they are issued.
• VIN or odometer that does not match the paperwork. Customs cross-checks the chassis plate against the invoice. A mismatch — even a clerical one — turns a two-day clearance into a two-week inspection.

Frequently asked

How much does it cost to ship a car from China to Lagos? Ocean freight alone runs USD 1,150–6,800 depending on method and size. The full landed cost is a different number — see the table above.

Can I import a car older than 12 years? No. It will be refused at the port, and there is no duty payment that makes it legal.

Do you sell to individuals or only to dealers? Both. What we need from either is the same: model, year range, and the port you will clear at.

Who handles clearing in Nigeria? Your licensed clearing agent. We hand over the full document set — bill of lading, invoice, certificate of origin, SONCAP and VehCAP — and stay on the phone with your agent until the car is out.