The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) made 2,500 nationwide seizures of prohibited goods worth over N59 billion in 2025.
NCS’s Comptroller-General (C-G), Bashir Adeniyi, disclosed this at the celebration of the 2026 World Customs Day, themed: ‘Protecting Society Through Vigilance and Commitment’, on Monday in Abuja. He elaborated on the achievements during the event.
Adeniyi said the seizures cut across narcotics, counterfeit pharmaceuticals, wildlife products, arms and ammunition, petroleum products, vehicles, and substandard consumer goods.
He expressed confidence that these operations have prevented real harm, addiction, unsafe treatment, violent crime, subsidy exploitation, environmental degradation, treaty violations, and even loss of lives, highlighting the broad impact of their actions.
Adeniyi said across NCS’s Commands, its personnel worked with sister agencies to disrupt multiple criminal supply chains before they reached communities.
“At Apapa, we uncovered 16 containers of prohibited goods worth over N10 billion, a single operation that combined narcotics, expired pharmaceuticals, and concealed firearms.
He continued, “At the airports, officers intercepted over 1,600 exotic birds being trafficked without CITES permits, stopping a wildlife crime operation that would have harmed both biodiversity and Nigeria’s international obligations.”
“Across land borders, our teams seized illicit narcotics and counterfeit medicines worth hundreds of millions of naira. They also found ammunition and other prohibited items moving through covert routes.
“These operations do not make headlines for long, but their impact is enduring as fewer young people are exposed to harmful drugs, fewer weapons reach criminal networks, fewer counterfeit medicines reach patients, and fewer endangered species are removed from the ecosystem.
“This is how Customs protects society: by preventing funerals, addictions, environmental crimes, and avoidable tragedies before they occur,” he said.
He further noted that, according to him, the unveiling of the TRS marks a major step toward making Nigeria’s trade gateways secure, efficient, predictable, and globally competitive.
The NCS boss said the move signals NCS’s commitment to evidence-based reforms. He said it shows a shift from a complaints-driven policy to a data-driven policy.
The study conducted at Tincan Island Port, he said, provided the most comprehensive measurement of clearance performance, revealing encouraging realities and uncomfortable truths.
“It shows, on the one hand, that examination times themselves are relatively efficient, and that Nigeria has the capacity to clear goods quickly.
“It shows, on the other hand, that excessive idle periods, often due to fragmented scheduling, manual documentation, and poor coordination, extend clearance times unnecessarily and erode competitiveness.
“In other words, our challenge is not that we cannot move goods fast. It is that goods are not allowed to move fast,” he said.
Adeniyi said NCS recorded N7.28 trillion in revenue in 2025. This surpassed its N6.58 trillion target by N697 billion, representing over 10 percent growth.
In her keynote address, the Minister of State for Finance, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, said that President Bola Tinubu’s administration was implementing fiscal, monetary, and structural reforms to stabilise the macroeconomic environment and strengthen revenue mobilisation.
Uzoka-Anite added that the reforms were also aimed at improving investor confidence and accelerating inclusive growth.
She explained that central to this effort were trade facilitation, border efficiency, and effective revenue assurance, adding that it was within this context that the TRS assumed strategic importance.
She said the TRS initiative was not merely a diagnostic tool but a strategic policy instrument that enables the government to measure performance and identify bottlenecks, reduce transaction costs, and enhance transparency across the trade ecosystem.
According to her, with the TRS, Nigeria is taking a decisive step towards smarter regulation and data-driven decision-making.
Uzoka-Anite said that the successful implementation of the TRS directly aligned with the Federal Government’s commitment to facilitating ease of doing business.