NIGERIA CUSTOMS AND TRADE FACILITATION

Bashir Adeniyi’s bold initiatives have improved revenue generation, strengthened border security, and facilitated legitimate trade, writes ADEREMI APATIRA The two events by the World Customs Organisation, (WCO) though barely three months apart and in two locations – Brussels, Belgium and Tin Can Island Port, Lagos, – clearly signposted the transformation that has taken place in the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in trade promotion for overall improvement of the country’s economy in the past three years. On Friday July 3, 2026, during the 147th and 148th sessions of the WCO Council held in Brussels, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, showered encomiums on Mr. Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC) on his unanimous re-election as Chairperson of the global body. He said the overwhelming confidence reposed in Adeniyi by customs administrations across the world reflected the remarkable progress recorded under his leadership and the growing international recognition of the NCS as one of the world’s leading customs institutions. “Adeniyi’s unanimous re-election is not only a personal honour to Adeniyi, but also a recognition of Nigeria’s growing influence in global customs administration. His leadership of the NCS has been marked by bold initiatives that have improved revenue generation, strengthened border security, facilitated legitimate trade, and modernised customs operations through homegrown innovations…. I am confident that his second term at the WCO will further deepen international collaboration, promote secure and efficient global trade, and bring even greater honour to our country,” President Tinubu said. Three months earlier, on April 24, during the presentation of Nigeria’s Time Release Study (TRS) the WCO had hailed Nigeria Customs’ bold steps towards faster and safer trade in Africa. Secretary-General of the Organisation, Ian Saunders, described TRS as a practical and evidence-based reform capable of strengthening border efficiency, boosting trade competitiveness within trade corridors in Africa and enhancing national safety. Taken together, the two testimonies confirmed Adeniyi’s three years of successfully strengthening institutional capacity, consolidating reforms, modernising Customs administration while sustaining Nigeria’s broader economic development aspirations. As chairperson of WCO, Adeniyi never tires to extoll long-lasting partnerships and new alliances. Of critical importance to the NCS’s trade facilitation agenda is the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), a landmark agreement under the World Trade Organization (WTO). Through proactive adoption of the TFA’s provisions, the NCS has embraced advanced ruling mechanisms, risk management techniques, and fast-track clearance procedures designed to expedite trade processes and enhance predictability for businesses. The NCS also embraced the Revised Kyoto Convention on Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures – a comprehensive framework for modernizing procedures and aligning them with international best practices. Through it, the NCS has streamlined its operations, promoted transparency, and facilitated greater consistency in trade transactions. Furthermore, the NCS is partnering with the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, Secretariat for enhanced trade facilitation in the continent. Adeniyi expressed concerns about how the African trade system refuses to grow beyond 14 – 15 percent over the last three to four years. “We are not unmindful of the benefits that trade presents, economic growth, job creation, and poverty alleviation,“ he said. “There is a need for collaboration in the verification of goods origin at the port as NCS has been designated the appropriate authority and also collaborate with other government agencies.” Secretary-General of AfCFTA, Wamkele Mene, expressed excitement to proffer solutions to the problems bedeviling trade in Africa and called for joint solutions to the issues affecting trade in Nigeria, emphasizing that AfCFTA is committed to collaborating with the NCS to enhance trade facilitation across the continent. Thus, the NCS under Adeniyi has undertaken many modernization projects to streamline customs processes. Notably, it established a Single Window System – a comprehensive electronic one-stop shop for submitting trade documents, making payments, and obtaining approvals, streamlining customs clearance and facilitating faster cargo movement across borders. Through advanced screening techniques, the NCS now effectively identifies and targets high-risk shipments for inspection while expediting the clearance of low-risk goods. This risk-based approach strengthens border security, facilitates smoother trade flows, and enhances the overall business environment. Similarly, the agency has trained officers on Harmonized System coding and customs laboratories to improve duty collection and enhance service efficiency. Recognizing the need for laboratories, the NCS collaborated with the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (GIZ), and others to actualize this vision. B’Odogwu, NCS’ Unified Customs Management System, sits at the centre of this transformation. It replaced the older Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS II) and now handles import, export, transit, excise and passenger processing, risk management, valuation, AEO management, licensing and electronic payments on one integrated platform. Within its first six months of full deployment, NCS processed over 389,000 declarations and more than 100,000 Bills of Lading, with over 18,500 businesses and 6,000 users onboarded. Today, B’Odogwu has reduced average cargo clearance time from about seven days under the legacy system to three days. Some Commands now clear compliant cargo in a matter of hours. The AEO scheme launched in August 2023 under the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023, was fully implemented from Q1 2025. For AEO-certified companies specifically, average clearance time is down to 43 hours, against a five-day average for non-AEO operators, and PTML Command has recorded clearance in as little as two hours for low-risk cargo. “In measurable terms, the reduction in average clearance time from around seven days to three days system-wide, and to under two days for AEO-certified and B’Odogwu-processed cargo, translates directly into lower demurrage and financing costs for smaller businesses that operate on tighter margins than large importers,” Adeniyi said. Alongside B’Odogwu, there is a Non-Intrusive Inspection System, supported by dual-energy scanners at Apapa, Tin Can Island and Onne Ports, through which officers now handle an average of 325 scan operations per hour, with a new Centralized Image Analysis System synchronising scanned images with declaration data. Trade facilitation measures in the last three years have equally targeted SMEs and manufacturers as a deliberate focus of the NCS reform agenda. The Advance Ruling System and AEO scheme are both structured to be accessible to small and medium enterprises. All these efforts have resulted in huge duties, taxes, and tariffs collected at the borders and ports. The agency closed 2024 with a record ₦6.1 trillion in revenue, exceeding target by 20.2 percent, and in 2025, with B’Odogwu fully live, this rose to ₦7.28 trillion. Total trade volume reached ₦196.94 trillion in 2024, a 179.3 percent increase over the ₦70.50 trillion recorded in 2023, with exports alone growing by 219.5 percent to ₦136.65 trillion. The NCS facilitated exports worth ₦136.65 trillion in 2024, a 219.5 percent increase over the previous year, while Q1 2025 exports rose a further 349 percent year-on-year. This phenomenal growth was not accidental. Said Adeniyi: “It was driven by the Advance Ruling System, which issued 15 rulings covering ₦102.93 billion in duty-paid value in its first year by giving importers pre-arrival certainty; by the AEO programme which rewards compliant traders; and by the B’Odogwu Unified Customs Management System, which closed leakages that used to erode collections under the legacy, manual process.” Apatira writes from Lagos