The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening intelligence-led border management and enhancing regional collaboration through the use of modern customs tools.
This came during the opening of a five-day National Training Seminar on Intelligence and the Instruments and Tools of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), which began on Monday in Abuja.
The training, organised under the framework of the Regional Intelligence Liaison Offices (RILO) for West and Central Africa, brought together top Customs intelligence officers, WCO experts, and international facilitators.
Declaring the seminar open on behalf of the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Adewale Adeniyi, the Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of Strategic Research and Policy, Dera Nnadi, described intelligence as central to modern border security operations.
“In a world where illicit trade, terrorism financing, and cyber-enabled crimes are constantly evolving, intelligence-led enforcement has become not just a necessity but a cornerstone of national security,” he said.
Nnadi noted that the NCS remains committed to building its intelligence capacity through stronger collaboration with the WCO and RILO offices. He said the Service would continue to adopt global instruments such as the Customs Enforcement Network (CEN) and the SAFE Framework of Standards to improve data analysis and enforcement outcomes.
“The knowledge gained here must translate into practical strategies that strengthen risk analysis, improve profiling techniques, and promote data-driven enforcement decisions,” he added.
Head of RILO West Africa, Amadou Cissé, commended the CGC for his leadership and congratulated him on his election as President of the WCO Council, which he described as a recognition of Nigeria’s growing role in global customs administration.
Cissé also lauded the Service for its reforms aimed at modernising operations and advancing intelligence sharing across borders.
“This seminar underscores the importance of the Customs Enforcement Network and other WCO instruments in combating illicit trade, terrorism financing, and organised crime,” he said.