By Ghazali Ibrahim
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has announced a record revenue collection of ₦7.281 trillion for the year 2025, exceeding its annual target and marking one of its strongest financial performances in recent years.
Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, disclosed the figures on Monday during the 2026 World Customs Day celebration in Abuja. He said the service exceeded its projected revenue of ₦6.5 trillion by about 10 per cent, translating to an over-performance of ₦697 billion.
The 2025 collection also represents a significant year-on-year increase of around 19 per cent compared with the ₦6.1 trillion collected in 2024, reflecting sustained growth and stronger compliance efforts.
Adeniyi attributed the impressive performance to a combination of ongoing reforms, improved use of technology, better data leverage and enhanced stakeholder engagement, while emphasising that the gains were not achieved through arbitrary enforcement that would burden legitimate trade.
He also stressed the importance of balancing revenue generation with trade facilitation commitments, ensuring that importers and manufacturers were not unduly hindered by customs operations. The Customs boss highlighted that closer collaboration with the private sector and the use of digital tools were key factors in the improved outcome.
In addition to revenue growth, the NCS reported intensified enforcement actions in 2025, with more than 2,000 seizures of prohibited and harmful goods such as narcotics, counterfeit products and unauthorised imports, with a combined value estimated at about ₦59 billion.
The strong revenue performance is being viewed as a boost to Nigeria’s broader economic agenda, particularly the federal government’s push to increase non-oil revenue and improve fiscal stability through strengthened border controls and customs reforms.
The achievement also comes amid ongoing efforts by the government to modernise trade processes, including the planned rollout of digital platforms designed to streamline import and export procedures and reduce operational bottlenecks at ports.
Overall, the NCS’s 2025 revenue haul underscores the agency’s pivotal role in national revenue mobilisation and reflects progress in border security, compliance and economic regulation.
