Customs Daring Reforms At KLT
One of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS’s) sterling administrators, Bolaji Adigun, demonstrates courageous leadership at the Kiri-Kiri Lighter Terminal Command (KLT) in Lagos
By David Oladimeji
It does not have the fame of Apapa or the noise of Tin Can Island Port Customs Commands. It sits in the shadows, behind the oil-stained lagoons of Kirikiri, Lagos, where barges groan and containers float rather than dock.
But make no mistake, the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is no longer a footnote in Nigeria’s maritime story. It is now a central character.
This is a lighter terminal by design. Mother vessels cannot berth here. Instead, cargo is lightered by barges from the major ports, a workaround born out of Apapa’s legendary congestion. What was meant as a relief valve has become a revenue machine.
Consider the numbers. In 2024, the Command generated N107.182 billion. In 2025, it generated N147.216 billion. That was N40.03 billion more, a 35 percent growth that smashed its annual target of N109.442 billion.
The momentum did not slow in 2026. In June 2026 alone, the Command announced N19.404 billion, up from N14.363 billion in June 2025. Same growth rate, 35 percent. Same message: KLT is delivering.
Acting Customs Area Controller (CAC), Deputy Comptroller Bolaji Lukman Adigun, who took over in December 2025, attributed the success to dedication of officers, improved stakeholder compliance, enhanced trade facilitation and intelligence-driven operations.
But behind the neat percentages lies a more complicated, more critical story. What exactly is KLT facilitating, and what is it fighting?
On July 30, 2026, Adigun did not just present revenue figures. He unveiled a 40-foot container loaded with expired disposable vape products worth N809.698 million. The products carried expiry dates ranging from 2022 to 2026.
A few months earlier, on January 16, the Command had intercepted a 20-foot container, GESU3900612, carrying 440 bags of expired Triple Pressed Stearic Acid from Indonesia, valued at N36.5 million. The consignment had expired in 2023.
Then there was the drug bust. In September 2025, officers uncovered 51.25kg of Cannabis Indica, valued at N256.25 million, hidden in imported goods. It was handed to the NDLEA in a well-publicised ceremony.
This is the dual reality of KLT. On one hand, it is a poster child for the Comptroller-General’s mandate of revenue generation. On the other, it is not a dumping ground for what the world no longer wants especially under its current leadership.
The critical question is: How do goods that expired three years ago still manage to get shipped to Nigeria? How does a container of 2022 vapes pass through export controls in Asia and sail for weeks, only to be caught at a lighter terminal in Lagos?
The answer exposes a gaping hole in global trade integrity and local risk profiling. The KLT CAC Adigun said his officers deployed “effective risk management and rigorous examination.”
Amid the infrastructure question, for example, the roads to Kirikiri are deplorable. There is no rail connection. Power is erratic. Yet this is where N147 billion revenue was recorded. It is a testament to Adigun’s leadership prowess, but an indictment on government’s poor infrastructure planning.
To his credit, Deputy Comptroller Adigun has leaned into inter-agency collaboration as a counterweight. The expired vapes went to NAFDAC. The cannabis went to NDLEA. He has turned KLT from a silo into a node.
NAFDAC’s Assistant Director, Dr. Peter Anzaku, described the vape seizure as “a successful collaboration.” NDLEA officials have similarly praised the cannabis handover. It is a new language for Customs: not just revenue, but public health.
For that, stakeholders argued that Nigeria needs pre-shipment inspection reforms and data sharing with exporting countries, not just seizures at KLT. These insisted that if a patriotic leader was not in the saddle at KLT, those illicit items would have found their way into the open market for consumption by unsuspecting citizens.
There is a creative irony in the name itself. Lighter Terminal. The idea is to lighten the burden on the big ports. Instead, KLT now carries a heavier burden: the burden of being both gatekeeper and garbage collector.
What is most striking is the symbolism. The stearic acid was meant for cosmetics and soaps, products Nigerians apply to their bodies. The vapes were meant for young lungs. The cannabis for the streets. KLT intercepted them, but how many terminals are not intercepting?
The Command said it is committed to the three core mandates of revenue generation, trade facilitation, and national security, under DC Adigun, KLT has hit the three with impressive records.
Stakeholders stressed that there are lessons here for the Nigeria Customs Service hierarchy. If a lighter terminal can generate N147 billion with limited infrastructure, imagine what it could do with scanners, functional access roads, and digital cargo tracking.
They added that there are also lessons for the business community; the era of “anything goes” at KLT Customs Command has expired, courtesy of the youthful Customs administrator. The 35 percent jump in revenue was partly driven by “blocking leakages,” which is Customs-speak for catching those who under-declare, misclassify, and smuggle.
Eventually, the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Customs is regarded as a Nigeria in miniature: resilient, revenue-hungry, innovative under pressure, but constantly forced to clean up messes that should never have arrived on its shores.
As the barges continue to crawl across the lagoon this morning, carrying containers from ship to shore, the officers at KLT will count again. They will count revenue. They will count seizures. And in those two counts lies the story of a port system still trying to find its balance between profit and protection. Stakeholders said Adigun has demonstrated leadership capacity at KLT that requires a higher calling and higher responsibility.
