The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has set an ambitious revenue target of N11.074 trillion for the 2026 fiscal year, almost doubling its 2025 target of N6.584 trillion and building on a performance that exceeded expectations by N674 billion.
The comptroller general of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed this on Monday during the agency’s budget defence before the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Customs.
Adeniyi also revealed that the Service generated N7.277 trillion in 2025 against a target of N6.584 trillion, representing an excess of N674 billion or about 10.24 per cent positive variance. His overall figure aligns with other reports that the Service collected roughly N7.28 trillion in 2025, surpassing its annual target by nearly N700 billion and marking a 19 per cent year-on-year increase over the N6.1 trillion collected in 2024.
He said that as of May 31, 2026, the Service had already realised N4.43 trillion of the projected 2026 revenue target, indicating that the Customs agency was about 40 per cent into its annual goal within the first five months of the year.
For the 2026 fiscal year, the Customs Service proposed an expenditure profile of N1.235 trillion, comprising N421 billion for personnel cost, N307 billion for overhead and N565 billion for capital expenditure.
Adeniyi attributed the strong 2025 performance to ongoing reforms in revenue generation, improved anti-smuggling operations and enhanced trade facilitation measures, though he noted that some government policies affected revenue inflows. He cited policies such as tariffs on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and electric vehicles, as well as the yet-to-be-implemented Green Tax, as factors that impacted operations in the outgoing year.
The 2025 outturn builds on a sustained upward trajectory in Customs revenue under Adeniyi’s tenure. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, the Service collected N1.75 trillion, exceeding its proportional quarterly benchmark of N1.645 trillion by N106 billion and achieving a 106.47 per cent performance rate.
That Q1 figure represented a 29.96 per cent increase compared to the N1.35 trillion collected in the same period in 2024.
By the middle of 2025, total revenue had reached N3.6 trillion between January and June, surpassing the projected six-month target by N390 billion, or 11.85 per cent, and accounting for 55.93 per cent of the annual target at that stage.
Another official source recorded N3.7 trillion in the first half of 2025, which was 12.5 per cent above budget and 25 per cent higher than the same period in 2024.
Looking ahead, the Customs boss expressed confidence in surpassing the 2026 target despite global economic uncertainties.
“In 2026, despite the major elephant in the room, which is the crisis in the Middle East, Customs is determined to achieve its revenue target of N11.074 trillion or even surpass it,” he said.
The Middle East crisis referenced by Adeniyi has long been a concern for global trade and energy markets, with earlier disruptions in 2024–2025 affecting shipping routes and fuel prices, and thereby influencing Nigeria’s import patterns and customs receipts.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly Committees on Customs applauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for extending the tenure of the comptroller general by six months. The move comes amid heightened expectations that the reforms introduced under Adeniyi will continue to drive revenue growth and improve trade facilitation across Nigeria’s major ports.
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, Senator Jibrin Isah (Kogi East), congratulated Adeniyi on the extension, describing the Service under his leadership as transformed through reforms in revenue generation, anti-smuggling operations and trade facilitation.
“Customs under your leadership has been transformed through series of revenue-generating reforms, improved anti-smuggling measures, improved trade facilitation and provision of required infrastructure for ease of doing business,” he said.
He urged the CG to intensify efforts to achieve the 2026 revenue projections.
The committee subsequently approved the 2026 budget proposal of the Nigeria Customs Service by voice vote, with all members in attendance supporting it.
The approval follows the earlier legislative push to raise the 2025 Customs revenue target from N6.584 trillion to as much as N10 trillion, reflecting lawmakers’ confidence in the agency’s reform agenda and its growing contribution to federal non-oil revenue.
