I visited Nigeria Customs Service Headquarters in Abuja this week to chair the Board meeting, my first since becoming Finance Minister.
Before the meeting, I toured the facility to see recent investments in technology and intelligence. I commended the leadership and staff for notable progress on revenue generation and trade facilitation.
But progress should not lead to complacency. Results are precisely what should propel us to do more. I therefore charged the Service to set world-class benchmarks, backed by measurable outcomes that strengthen our regional and global competitiveness. Nigeria must lead through performance, not rhetoric:
• Port efficiency that eliminates bottlenecks
• End-to-end transparency across all operations
• Accelerated cargo clearance timelines
• Uncompromising integrity in revenue collection
The Federal Government remains committed to equipping Customs with the technology, tools, and policy support needed to do more. I urged every officer to see themselves not just as border administrators, but as frontline drivers of Nigeria’s economic growth and global competitiveness.
