The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has stated that intelligence, data and joint patrols by international neighbours are more effective than shutting the borders as an anti-smuggling strategy.

The Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Dr Bashir Adeniyi, made this position yesterday at the third Distinguished Personality Lecture of the TETFUND Centre of Excellence in Security Management (TECESM), the University of Ibadan.

However, Adeniyi said the service would pursue its 2026 revenue target of N11.07 trillion through compliance, data-driven operations and trade facilitation rather than harassment of traders and importers.

He described the target as demanding but stressed that achieving it should not come at the expense of legitimate trade.

Speaking on “Why Customs Matters: Revenue, Security and Nationhood in a Borderless World,” he stressed that while revenue generation remains central to the government’s ability to provide essential services, “a target met by choking trade would be a false victory.”

Adeniyi also advocated intelligence-led border management, data sharing and joint patrols with neighbouring countries as more effective measures against smuggling than shutting borders.

He noted that though the land border closure of August 2019 to December 2020 curbed some smuggling, field research published this year found that the closure did not destroy but rather reorganised the smuggling networks.

According to the CGC, the lesson is that a nation is protected by intelligent control of its border, not by sealing it, just as closure is a blunt instrument, while intelligence, data and joint patrols with neighbours are sharper ones.

Speaking on waivers, he explained that while large informal sectors make income tax hard to collect, imports, by contrast, pass through a few points that could be watched, including seaports, airports and border posts.

Consequently, “trade integration must be pursued with our eyes open, since many countries that cut trade taxes never replaced the lost revenue. It is also why waivers deserve scrutiny. Import concessions were worth about N1.68 trillion in 2024, and in August I called for a review of the waiver regime alongside the Customs Act.”

As the 2027 elections draw nearer, Adeniyi has called for increased vigilance, disclosing that the NCS handed over 1, 599 firearms seized between 2018 and 2024 to the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons.