The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) engages in sensitisation of its critical stakeholders on the functions of the Post Clearance Audit (PCA) and application of the Authorized Economic Operator ( AEO) scheme
By Innocent Chukwu
The Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) of Customs in charge of the Post Clearance Audit (PCA) Department, Dr Babatunde Olomu has disclosed that the department recovered over ₦21.278 billion in 2025 and ₦27.181billion so far in 2026.
The NCS revealed the revenue surge from the PCA during its continuation of stakeholders engagement in Lagos on Thursday, September 10, 2026. The Service organised the sensitisation workshop to educate importers, clearing Agents, freight forwarders , manufacturers and other stakeholders on the application of the newly introduced World Customs Organisation (WCO) trade facilitation tools as enshrined in the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023.
The workshop was organised at the instance of PCA Department to educate its key stakeholders on the WCO trade facilitation tool, the Authorize Economic Operator (AEO) and the role of the PCA in accordance with the WCO Convention and application.
Giving a keynote address at the event which took place at the Eko Hotel in Lagos , Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, said he was
glad to see the trading community well represented. Adeniyi said, “they (stakeholders) are the focus of today’s engagement. The Post-Clearance Audit did not arrive in Nigeria by accident. It arrived because two things happened at about the same time.
“The first is that the Nigeria Customs Service Act, 2023, gave this Service a
modern legal foundation, and with it an express mandate to verify compliance after goods have been released. The second is that The Federal Government set a clear
direction on revenue and on the business environment, and asked the agencies of
government to meet both objectives at once.
“That instruction deserves to be stated plainly, because it is harder than it sounds. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has pursued a broadening of non-oil revenue, a reform of the fiscal system and a serious effort to reduce the cost and friction of doing business in Nigeria. Customs sits precisely where those objectives meet. We are asked to collect more, and to obstruct less.”
The Customs boss added that the scale of the first half of that instruction is worth stating. He informed that in 2025 , the Service collected ₦7.281 trillion against a target of ₦6.584 trillion, exceeding it by ₦697billion, and rising from ₦6.1 trillion the previous year,
“This is a growth of some 19 percent year on year. For 2026 the target set for us is ₦11.074 trillion. At the end of
June we stood at ₦4.30 trillion, which the Board reviewed at its 65th Regular Meeting on 2 September. These figures make a point about the methods that must be applied and not celebrated alone. Numbers of that order cannot be delivered by opening more containers. They can only be delivered by knowing which containers to open.” .
To achieve more revenue collection, Adeniyi said is only one way to do both. “Control has to move off the quay. If every
consignment must be opened at the port before it is released, then revenue assurance and trade facilitation will pull against each other for as long as we practise Customs, and the trader will pay for that contest in demurrage and delay. Post-Clearance Audit is how that contest is resolved. It allows goods to move on the strength of the declaration, and moves the verification to the records, after release, where it can be done thoroughly and without holding up commerce.
“The good thing is that we now have recent measurement to work with. In January this year the Service published the findings of the Time Release Study conducted at Tin Can Island Port, a facility that handles more than a tenth of Nigeria’s seaborne trade. The study followed 601 import declarations from arrival to physical exit, and it was carried out with the shipping lines, the terminal operators, the Nigerian Ports Authority, licensed agents and the banks, so that what it recorded would be the real operating environment and not our own account of it.
“The central finding deserves the attention of everybody in this room. A container at Tin Can Island sat for about 5 days before it left the port. The physical examination of that container took a matter of hours. For 98.7 per cent of consignments, the interval between booking for examination and physical exit averaged close to 4 days, and a small number of prolonged cases carried the overall average to nearly 5.
“Read that carefully, because it does not say what people often assume it says. It
does not say that Customs examination is slow. It says that examination is fast and
clearance is slow, and that the difference between the two is made up of manual
processes, fragmented coordination between agencies, and the waiting that these
produce. The delay is in the architecture, not in the inspection. As I said when the
report was launched, the study allowed us to move from assumptions to facts, and some of those facts were uncomfortable.”, he explained.
Speaking further Adeniyi said if the problem was slow examination, the answer would be more examiners. “It
is not, and so the answer is different. The answer is to reduce the number of
consignments that need to be stopped at all, by verifying afterwards those that do not
and not celebrated alone. Numbers of that order cannot be delivered by opening more
containers. They can only be delivered by knowing which containers to open.
“There is only one way to do both. Control has to move off the quay. If every
consignment must be opened at the port before it is released, then revenue assurance and trade facilitation will pull against each other for as long as we practise Customs, and the trader will pay for that contest in demurrage and delay. Post-Clearance Audit is how that contest is resolved. It allows goods to move on the strength of the declaration, and moves the verification to the records, after release, where it can be done thoroughly and without holding up commerce”, he said.
“So, the message today is a simple one. Compliance should not be driven by fear
of enforcement. It should be driven by confidence in a system that is fair, predictable and consistently applied. Businesses need clarity. You need to understand your obligations, and you are equally entitled to understand your rights. You are entitled to know that an audit will be conducted professionally, transparently and within the applicable legal framework, by officers who are trained for it and accountable for how they exercise it. That is why this programme matters. It gives the Service an opportunity to explain the process, to set out the rights and obligations on both sides, and to open the door to voluntary disclosure before an error becomes a liability. It also
gives you an opportunity to speak to us. We are listening, and we are prepared to learn.
Adeniyi urged stakeholders that their partnership must rest on responsibility, and the responsibility runs both ways.
He said the Service expects traders to keep accurate records, make truthful declarations and observe the laws governing international trade. “Where errors occur, and they will, our system should encourage their prompt correction and voluntary disclosure instead of punishing the trader who comes forward.
“For our part, we are moving the Service from a culture of intervention to one in which compliance is the natural outcome of understanding, trust and cooperation. As we modernise, we are applying technology, trade data and professional expertise to make our processes faster while strengthening revenue assurance. Post-Clearance Audit is the instrument that allows us to remove obstacles elsewhere and not an additional obstacle placed in the way of legitimate trade.
” I encourage every qualified business in this room to work towards Authorised
Economic Operator status. Compliance is not a cost of doing business in Nigeria. It is an advantage over competitors who do not have it. Our success in this will be measured beyond the revenue recovered through audit, as it will also be measured by how many businesses understand their obligations, and the certainty and predictability that serious businesses need in order to plan.
“And Nigeria Customs Service does not regard the trading community as a body to be policed. We regard you as partners in building an efficient and competitive Nigerian economy, and the audit function is central to that relationship rather than a departure from it.”, Adeniyi assured.
Earlier in his welcome address, the host and Head of the PCA, ACG Olomu, said the engagement comes at a critical time in the NCS efforts to strengthen Post-Clearance Audit (PCA) as a strategic instrument for revenue assurance, voluntary compliance, trade facilitation and improved customs administration.
“It also provides an important platform for strengthening understanding, cooperation and mutual trust between the Service and our stakeholders.”, he assured
According to ACG Olomu the programme is geared towards strengthening three key objectives: Enhancing Stakeholder Understanding and Voluntary Compliance;
Strengthening Revenue Assurance and Risk-Based Compliance and; Deepening Partnership and Institutional Cooperation.
He said the impact of PCA interventions is increasingly evident in the Service’s revenue performance. “Between January and August 2025, the Service recovered ₦21,278,494,169.61, while the corresponding period in 2026 recorded ₦27,181,037,678.77 – an increase of ₦5,902,543,509.16, representing approximately 27.7% growth year-on-year.
“This substantial improvement reflects the growing effectiveness of our PCA interventions, particularly enhanced risk-based targeting, more robust audit processes, strengthened case management and improved stakeholder compliance. Beyond the increase in recoveries, this performance demonstrates the PCA’s expanding contribution to revenue assurance, compliance management and accountability, while reinforcing the Service’s commitment to leveraging post-clearance interventions to secure government revenue and promote a more compliant trading environment.
These results are significant within the broader revenue performance of the Service and underscore the growing role of PCA in identifying revenue leakages, addressing underpayments, strengthening compliance and protecting government revenue, while facilitating legitimate trade.
“I wish to particularly acknowledge the World Bank Group for its sustained technical partnership and the profound contribution of its missions to improving PCA operations in Nigeria. These interventions have strengthened our risk-based audit approach, case management, quality assurance, standardisation and the professional capacity of our personnel.
We equally acknowledge the strong leadership and support of the Comptroller-General of Customs, whose commitment to NCS-PCA modernization and reform continues to provide the strategic impetus for repositioning PCA as an increasingly intelligence-driven, technology-enabled and risk-based compliance function.
“As part of this continuing reform and capacity-building agenda, our officers will also undertake Peer-to-Peer Learning with the Kenya Revenue Authority, providing an opportunity to exchange practical experiences, benchmark international best practices and further strengthen our institutional capacity. All thanks to the CGC’s collaboration with the World Bank Group (WBG).
“I therefore sincerely appreciate the Comptroller-General for his unwavering support, and the World Bank Group for its partnership and continued confidence in the Nigeria Customs Service.
“To our distinguished stakeholders, I encourage you to actively participate in this engagement. The success of PCA depends not only on the efforts of the Service, but also on mutual trust, cooperation and voluntary compliance. Your perspectives, experiences and constructive engagement are essential to building a PCA framework that is both effective in protecting government revenue and supportive of legitimate business, ” ACG Olomu assured.
CGC Adewale Adeniyi also commended ACG Babatude Olomu for living up to the mandate as the pioneer ACG of the PCA Unit, promising he will lead the team to international training in days ahead.
