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Customs Reform Drive Earns Adeniyi FiBOP Excellence Award in Lagos
By Prince Benson Davies
The Finance and Business Online Publishers, FiBOP, has conferred its highly coveted Transformative Reforms and Leadership Excellence award on the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi.
The honour was presented at the 2026 Annual Conference of the Association held in Lagos last Saturday, where media leaders and economic stakeholders gathered to review the nation’s trade and fiscal reforms.
FiBOP said the award was in recognition of Adeniyi’s deliberate and result-driven approach to repositioning the Nigeria Customs Service as a transparent, technology-led institution capable of driving national economic growth.
Since his appointment, Adeniyi has pursued a clear reform agenda anchored on three pillars: trade facilitation, revenue optimisation and border security. Stakeholders note that his leadership has shifted the Service from a largely enforcement-focused agency to a facilitator of legitimate trade.
One of the key areas of impact has been the reduction of bureaucratic bottlenecks at the nation’s ports and airports. Through initiatives such as the Authorized Economic Operator scheme and the Time Release Study, cargo clearance time has improved while the cost of doing business has dropped significantly for importers and exporters.
On revenue, the Service has continued to post impressive growth despite global economic headwinds. This has been attributed to process automation, enhanced compliance monitoring and the sealing of leakages that previously hampered collection.
In the area of national security, the Customs Service under Adeniyi has strengthened inter-agency collaboration and deployed non-intrusive inspection equipment to detect illicit trade. This has led to increased seizures of contraband goods and the protection of local industries.
Another major highlight of his administration is the digital transformation of Customs operations. The phased rollout of the Unified Customs Management System has reduced human interface, improved accountability and aligned Nigeria’s customs procedures with global best practices.
Receiving the award on behalf of the Comptroller-General, Deputy Superintendent of Customs at the Lagos Free Trade Zone Command, AbdulGaniy Oloro Usman, thanked FiBOP for its objective assessment of the Service. He noted that the recognition would spur the Service to deepen its engagement with the media, maritime stakeholders, manufacturers and the international trading community in pursuit of the Federal Government’s one trillion dollar economy target.
Industry watchers say the award is a validation that institutional reforms, when driven with integrity and innovation, can unlock Nigeria’s economic competitiveness and restore investor confidence in the country’s trade ecosystem.
