Nigeria Customs Service, in 2025, collected a total of ₦7.281 trillion naira in revenue, exceeding the target of ₦6.584 trillion with a positive variance of ₦697 billion representing a growth of over 10 percent against target.
Compared to 2024 collections, total revenue rose from ₦6.1 trillion to ₦7.281 trillion, an increase of approximately ₦1.18 trillion, or about 19 percent year- on-year.
The Comptroller General of Customs, Adeniyi gave the report in a speech at international Customs day and launch of Nigeria Time Release Study held at Sheraton hotel, Abuja on Monday.
As a clarification, the CGC said, “We present these figures not as self-congratulation, but as evidence that reform is yielding tangible outcomes. The gains came not from arbitrary enforcement or the burdening of legitimate traders, but from improved compliance, better data use, digital tools, and disciplined enforcement”.
He affirmed that the days when enforcement depended solely on physical presence was over and vowed to sustain the performance.
“First, we will invest in intelligence-led, technology-driven enforcement. Illicit trade has become more sophisticated, and Customs must be more sophisticated still.”
“Second, we will institutionalize procedural reforms that reduce clearance times, increase transparency, and eliminate avoidable bottlenecks. The TRS report is a mirror that shows us how others experience our system and challenges us to respond”
Third, we will strengthen partnerships. Customs cannot be everywhere, and it cannot do everything. We will work more closely with other government agencies, the organized private sector, ports and maritime operators, financial institutions, and international bodies such as the WCO”, Adeniyi pledged
The CGC also reaffirmed the commitment of the Service to it’s core mandates of protecting society and facilitating lawful trade, noting that WCO theme of “Protecting Society through Vigilance and Commitment” aligned with the mandate of Nigeria Customs
In his word,
“true protection involves intercepting narcotics that would devastate young lives; blocking counterfeit medicines that would harm patients; seizing hazardous environmental materials; preventing arms from reaching criminal networks; and ensuring that the products entering our country are safe for consumption”.
Reeling out Customs landmark achievement in this area, Adeniyi said,
“Last year showed very clearly what “protecting society” looks like in the real world. Across our Commands, officers working with sister agencies disrupted multiple criminal supply chains before they ever reached our communities.”
“At Apapa, we uncovered 16 containers of prohibited goods worth over ₦10 billion — a single operation that combined narcotics, expired pharmaceuticals, and concealed firearms.’
‘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.’
‘The Service recorded over 2500 seizure, with an aggregate value of more than ₦59 billion in prohibited and harmful goods removed from circulation nationwide.’
‘In many of these cases, the public may never see the intervention—but they would certainly have felt the consequences had we failed to act”, he concluded
Also at the event, the CGC announced the launch of Nigeria Time Release Study as a latest milestone in building a Customs administration that concomitantly protects society and facilitates lawful trade.
“A modern Customs administration must be able to detect high-risk consignments without suffocating lawful trade. This is why today’s second event—the launch of the Time Release Study—is significant. The TRS marks a major step toward making Nigeria’s trade gateways secure, efficient, predictable, and globally competitive”
