The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) recorded 2,500 seizures of prohibited and harmful goods nationwide in 2025, valued at over N59 billion.
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.
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 the operation prevented real harm, addiction, unsafe treatment, violent crime, subsidy exploitation, environmental degradation, treaty violations, and even loss of lives.
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.
“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, along with 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 exposed to harmful drugs; fewer weapons reaching criminal networks; fewer counterfeit medicines reaching patients; fewer endangered species removed from the ecosystem.
“This is how Customs protects society: by preventing funerals, addictions, environmental crimes and avoidable tragedies before they occur,” he said.
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 signaled the NCS`s commitment to move from opinion-driven reforms to evidence-based reforms, and from complaints-driven policy to 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, surpassing its N6.58 trillion target by N697 billion, representing over 10 per cent 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 aimed at stabilising the macroeconomic environment and strengthening revenue mobilisation.
Uzoka-Anite added that the reforms were also focused on improving investors’ confidence and accelerating inclusive growth.
She said 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 TRS initiative was not merely a diagnostic tool but a strategic policy instrument that enables government to measure performance and identify bottlenecks, reduce transaction cost 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 commitment of facilitating ease of doing business.
