The Nigeria Customs Service is set to transition to full paperless operations as part of ongoing reforms aimed at improving efficiency, transparency and trade facilitation.
Assistant Comptroller General in charge of Zone A, Mohammed Babandede, disclosed this during a media briefing in Lagos.
He said the initiative, driven by the leadership of Comptroller-General Bashir Wale Adeniyi, would eliminate physical documentation in customs processes and enable importers, exporters and licensed customs agents to complete transactions online.
According to Babandede, key procedures such as cargo declaration, duty payments and cargo release have already been largely automated.
He explained that the full digital transition is expected to reduce delays at ports, simplify cargo processing and improve Nigeria’s competitiveness in global trade.
“The goal is to ensure that nobody moves documents from one office to another because everything will be processed online,” he said.
The Customs Service has also introduced digital platforms for licence renewals and other regulatory processes to minimise physical visits to customs offices.
Babandede noted that the paperless initiative aligns with the Federal Government’s ease-of-doing-business agenda and broader efforts to strengthen economic growth through trade facilitation.
Industry stakeholders have long advocated full automation of customs operations, citing delays and bureaucratic bottlenecks associated with manual documentation.
The Nigeria Customs Service expects the transition to improve revenue collection, reduce cargo dwell time and enhance transparency across its operations.
Reporting by John Obot