Uchenna Cecil Izuora
Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Comptroller-General Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and UK HMRC’s Head of International Customs Megan Shaw held detailed bilateral talks in London on 18 March 2026, aligning with President Bola Tinubu’s state visit under the Nigeria-UK Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership (ETIP). The session aimed to boost customs modernisation, data accuracy, and secure trade corridors.
Adeniyi underscored customs’ pivotal role in fostering transparent, efficient flows across agriculture, energy, industrial goods, and consumer sectors sustaining the longstanding economic ties. Both leaders confronted a glaring discrepancy, UK exports to Nigeria hit £1.7 billion in 2024, while Nigeria logged just £504 million in imports, a £1.2 billion gap blamed on structural reporting flaws.
To resolve this, they committed to a pre-arrival data exchange protocol integrating NCS and HMRC digital platforms, enabling real-time risk profiling, streamlined reconciliation, and robust compliance checks for mutual benefit.
Shaw detailed HMRC’s cutting-edge AI trade analytics, digital verification systems, and live monitoring tools, inspiring parallel advancements in NCS operations. Key deliverables emerged: a formal Customs Mutual Administrative Assistance Framework for operational synergy; initial scoping for reciprocal capacity-building and expertise swaps; and launch of a dedicated ETIP joint technical committee.
NCS affirmed these steps accelerate its reform drive, embedding global best practices to sharpen trade facilitation, revenue integrity, and Nigeria’s competitiveness in international commerce.