The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has strengthened its collaboration with six federal government agencies to tackle cross-border illicit financial flows, money laundering, corruption, drug trafficking, terrorism financing and other financial crimes.
The initiative followed a three-day engagement with the agencies from October 27 to 29, 2026, led by the Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs in charge of Headquarters, Muhammad Shuaibu.
The engagements focused on strengthening strategic cooperation, intelligence sharing and operational coordination among the agencies to address financial crimes and other activities threatening Nigeria’s economy and national security.
The agencies involved are the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and the National Counter-Terrorism Centre under the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
Speaking during the engagements, Shuaibu said the initiative was designed to improve inter-agency coordination and strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to detect and disrupt illicit financial activities across its borders.
He explained that the exercise would involve field visits to selected border stations to assess existing Customs control measures and facilitate direct engagement with relevant agencies.
“The sole objective of this mission is to effectively detect and disrupt cross-border illicit financial flows. The measures include field visits to selected border stations to assess practical Customs control measures and engage with relevant agencies,” he said.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of the NFIU, represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Intelligence Security Service Sector, Muhammed-Mustapha, commended the NCS for its contributions to combating smuggling and strengthening border security.
He also acknowledged the longstanding partnership between both institutions, noting that the Customs Service was among the first agencies to collaborate with the NFIU following its establishment.
“When NFIU was created, NCS was the first to collaborate with us. No particular agency understands things better than how Customs does globally,” Mustapha said.
The engagements also featured interactions with the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Mentoring Team, led by Shahiduzzaman Sarkar, which shared perspectives on strengthening approaches to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT).
The WCO team emphasised the need for stronger institutional cooperation with the NCS to ensure the successful implementation of the initiative.
Participants identified communication gaps, bureaucratic bottlenecks and concerns surrounding database privacy as some of the challenges limiting effective inter-agency collaboration.
Discussions also centred on practical measures to address the identified obstacles, improve information exchange and strengthen institutional relationships in the fight against financial crimes and other transnational threats.
The engagements concluded with the presentation of NCS awards and WCO certificates to participating agencies in recognition of their contributions and commitment to collaborative efforts.
The initiative underscores the Customs Service’s drive to strengthen institutional partnerships, improve intelligence-led operations and reinforce Nigeria’s capacity to combat illicit financial flows and threats to national security.
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