Nigerian Custom Services: History, Roles & Functions

December 10, 2020

In this post you’ll discover the roles and functions of the Nigeria Customs Service. In addition, we’ll provide you with a brief history of how the Nigeria Customs Service came to being.

The history of the Nigeria Customs Services dates as far back as one century ago, when delegates of the British Colonial Masters appointed Mr. T. A. Wall as the Director-General of Customs.

Mr. T.A Wall was tasked with the role of monitoring the collection of inland Revenue in Niger Coast Protectorate.

Formerly, the organisation was named Department of Customs and Excise; that was back in 1922, the same year the first Comptroller of Customs and Excise was appointed.

The Organisation has witnessed several years of metamorphosis and restructuring. Most notably was when — after Nigeria’s independence in 1960 — the first Nigerian Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ayodele Diyan, was appointed in 1964.

Roles & Functions of the Nigeria Customs Service:

It is safe to say that Nigeria Customs play an extremely important role in the economy of the nation. Needless to say, no nation will be able to cope without the revenue generated by activities around its borders.

Furthermore, the nation may lose a lot of money through the activities of smugglers, which is why it is an extremely important organisation.

The following are some of the functions of the Nigeria Customs Service:

Collection of Revenue from activities involving Import / Excise Duties, and remitting the funds to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
monitoring and fighting against all forms of smuggling activities.
Alerting the nation on imports that pose Security threats to the nation.
Generating import / Excise Duty statistics needed for planning and proposing new national budgets.
Licensing, registration and documentation of Customs Agents.
Working together with other security parastatals in all approved ports and border station

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