Nigeria Customs Chief Urges Review of Import Exemptions

Nigeria's Customs Comptroller-General, Mr. Bashir Adeniyi, has called on the National Assembly to conduct regular reviews of the nation's exemption and waiver regime. He stated that many policy-driven concessions should be periodically assessed to determine if they still achieve their intended goals or have become costly loopholes.

Speaking at a Senate Committee on Customs retreat, Adeniyi stressed that while customs implements waiver frameworks, the legislature holds the oversight responsibility for justifying these incentives. The Senate committee lauded the Nigeria Customs Service for generating N7.3 trillion in 2025, surpassing the projected N6.5 trillion. Committee Chairman Senator Jibrin Isah commended Adeniyi's leadership for improvements in revenue collection, trade facilitation, and anti-smuggling operations.

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The Nigeria Customs Service deserves commendation for surpassing its 2025 revenue target. Under the leadership of Comptroller-General Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, the service has recorded outstanding improvements in revenue collection, trade facilitation and anti-smuggling operations.

Adeniyi also appealed for enhanced legislative backing to protect the ongoing modernization and reform efforts within the Nigeria Customs Service. He emphasized that reforms centered on automation and transparency can only succeed if shielded from political and institutional interference. The Comptroller-General suggested that legislative oversight should shift focus from individual transactions to the integrity of the digital systems driving customs administration.

He urged lawmakers to prioritize questions about the calibration of the service's risk management engine, the currency of valuation databases, the speed of compliant cargo clearance, and the continued economic benefit of tax exemptions. Adeniyi believes that as customs operations become increasingly automated, oversight should interrogate the performance and credibility of these core systems.

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As customs increasingly automated its operations, effective oversight should move beyond investigations into specific consignments or officers and, instead, interrogate the design, performance, and credibility of the systems that determined trade facilitation, cargo clearance, and revenue collection.