Customs begins moves to choke illicit financial flows

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has held a three-day round of engagements with six federal agencies to strengthen cooperation against cross-border illicit financial flows, money laundering, corruption, drug trafficking and terrorism financing.

The visit, from October 27 to 29, 2026, was led by the Assistant Comptroller-General in charge of Headquarters, Muhammad Shuaibu. It centred on deeper strategic cooperation and intelligence sharing among the agencies.

The Service met the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and the National Counter-Terrorism Centre under the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

Shuaibu said the initiative was meant to improve coordination in addressing threats to Nigeria’s economy and national security.

“The sole objective of this mission is to effectively detect and disrupt cross-border illicit financial flows,” he said. He added that the measures include field visits to selected border stations to assess practical customs controls and to engage relevant agencies.

The NFIU’s Chief Executive Officer, represented by Muhammed-Mustapha, Chief Operating Officer, Intelligence Security Service Sector, commended the Service for its efforts against smuggling and for reinforcing border security. He noted the long relationship between the two institutions.

“When NFIU was created, NCS was the first to collaborate with us,” he said. “No particular agency understands things better than how Customs does globally.”

A World Customs Organisation (WCO) Mentoring Team, led by Shahiduzzaman Sarkar, took the agencies through approaches to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT). The team called for stronger collaboration with the NCS to ensure the initiative succeeds.

Participants named communication gaps, bureaucracy and database privacy concerns, among others, as impediments to effective inter-agency work. The discussions also explored ways to address them and strengthen institutional synergy.

The engagements closed with the presentation of NCS awards and WCO certificates to the agencies, which the Service said reflected its commitment to deeper collaboration in tackling threats to the economy and national security.