By Stephen Ubanna
With the impressive revenue track records of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, under the close watch of Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, in the 2024, Fiscal year, appears have encouraged the Federal Executive Council, FEC, under the Chairmanship of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to have set a revenue target of N6.3 tn, the service, his 2025.
In setting the revenue target, which economic experts sees as an uphill task because of the downturn in the global economy which had had affected the volume of cargoes being imported into the country, but policy makers may not have been thinking along this line of argument.
They may have had a mindset that if the service could surpass the 2024, revenue target of N5.1 tn, even when the situation of the country’s economy was worrisome, there is nothing stopping it from surpassing the 2025, n6.3 tn, revenue target.
The Customs Comptroller General who, many believes likes challenges may not have seen it as going to give him a cause for concern as he was said to have told those that cares to listen that if the Customs Formations across the country could meet their various revenue targets, and even surpass it in 2024, despite the challenges there is nothing stopping them from do so this 2025, as they would want to work harder to strive to achieve greater heights.
The Customs Comptroller General, who is in the book of the President as an achiever knew that he cannot afford to fail, which may have informed why he and his Management Team had gone back to the drawing board to strengthen the country’s Free Trade Zone, FTZ, Operations through key initiatives, including implementing strict operating procedures for monitoring mechanisms at the FTZs.
CG. Adeniyi led Management Team, were said to have gone a step further in enhancing the FTZs, by deploying technology and intelligence in their operations as a way to replace random checks and encourage shippers to patronize the FTZs in taking delivery of their cargoes instead of putting much attention on the seaports of Apapa, Tin-can Island Port Multiservices Terminal Limited, Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, KLT phases I and II, and the Onne-port.
Given that the service scanning capacity over the last couple of years had undergone, significant enhancement undertaken by Huawei, China famous Information and Communications Technology ICT, firm, based in the Asian country of China, involved in the service the Trade Modernization Project may have strengthened his resolve to complete the digitalization process of the country’s sea and airport operations that was said to have been started by his predecessor, Hameed Ali, a retired Army Colonel.
He may have given the importers with their agents cause to be cheery, when he said last year after a visit to Huawei’s Headquarters in Schnzhen, China, where he was said to have discussed with the officials’ opportunities of achieving the trade modernization agenda in Nigeria of going to procure 76 scanners with an initial delivery of six before the end of 2024. The scanners, he had said will be distributed to the seaports and international airports the Lagos ports of Apapa, Tincan Island and other ports across the country in to enhance their operations and revenue generations.

Aware that the service will need enough manpower to meet its operational mandate with the retirement of hundreds of officers in the last two years who had been caught up by the 60 years age-limit and 35 year limit for government employees, serving in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs going by the civil service employment guidelines, may have informed why the Customs Board , under the Chairmanship of Wale Edun, minister of Finance and Coordinating minister of the Economy, had used his close working relationship with the Nigerian President to secure approval for the service to recruit 3,927 fresh hands into the service to fill the vacancies that have been left behind and further close the gap, which the retired officers had left but yet to be occupied.
Until he was eased out from office last June, Ali, the immediate past Customs Comptroller General, was said to have granted double promotions to the officers recruited between 2009 and 2012, to fill the gaps left by the retired senior officers both at Command, Zonal and Headquarters level but not much was said to have been achieved in doing so because of the several years of lack of recruitment and organizing proper promotion examination in the service.
The situation was so bad as officers were found to have been in new rank for between six to 10 years and no hope of moving to the next rank before retirement. It was not surprising why many senior officers who could have attained the Comptroller’s rank before retired could not do so. Some of the Deputy Comptrollers who were said to have passed the promotion examinations during Ali’s tenure could not wear the rank until they were retired from the service but the gap in the service at senior officers’ cadre still remained till date.
Edun, the minister of Finance may have known that until something urgent is done to address the gap at the senior officers’ level, may have informed why he was said to secured the Presidential approval for the Adeniyi led NCS, to grant special promotions to top performing officers and men of the service to fill the vacancies.
The minister who was said to have also secured a one year extension of service for some serving senior officers , including Area Controllers who were due for retirement because of their strategic role, may have gladdened the heart of the Customs Comptroller General and his team, when he stated recently that the service under the Leadership of Adeniyi, success, in exceeding the 2024 revenue target of N5.1 tn, underscores the agency’s critical role in Nigeria’s economic framework, particular, in the light of the substantial 2025 budget, which the Nigerian President had tagged ‘’budget of national restoration’’, aimed at stabilizing the nation’s battered economy, which economic experts had said was a fallout of several years of economic mismanagement by previous Administration, including former President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration.
The 2025, budget, projection of 34.82 tn, and expenditure profile of N47.96tn, according to the minister had been had been predicated on the price of Crude oil at the North American country of the United States, US, $75 per barrel, and oil production level of 2.06 million b/d, as well as an exchange rate of N1,400.00 to the US dollar.
Though the FG, had fixed the 2025, exchange rate at N1,400.00 to the US, dollar, at the official Exchange rate market, managed by Olayemi Cardoso led Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN while it exchanges between N1,650.00 to N172.00 to the US, dollar, at the parallel, popular, black market.
The volatile exchange rate market in the country over the last one year, which had guided the calculation of import duties at the nation’s seaports, airports and land border stations, across the country may have given the Customs Area Controllers no cause to worry in meeting their daily, weekly and monthly revenue targets as they move to tight security in their areas of jurisdictions and further block areas of revenue leakage to maximize revenue collections for the government this 2025.

The foursome of Comptrollers. Babatunde Olomu, Area Controller, Apapa Command and Customs officer of the year, 2024, Mohammed Babandede, PortHarcourt II, Command, Onne, Awe, MMA, Lagos, and acting Compt. Frank Oyeka, Tin can Island Command, were said to have set the ball rolling in their daily revenue generation of their respective Commands since the beginning of this 2025, with a warning to the officers serving under them never to compromise in the discharge of their duties as anyone caught in the act will not like what will happen to him or her after facing the disciplinary Committee that will handle their case as a deterrence to other officers who might want to use their office for pecuniary gains. This is because Adeniyi, the Customs Comptroller, frowns at unguided behaviour that may portray the service in a bad light in the public court.