…As CGC Adeniyi positions human capital development as the foundation for modern customs administration
By: Goodluck E. Adubazi, Abuja.
As technology transforms border management, CGC Bashir Adewale Adeniyi is betting that the future of Nigeria’s Customs Service depends not only on machines and software, but on the people operating them.
For decades, customs administration was largely associated with physical inspections, paperwork, cargo declarations and officers stationed at ports and border posts. That world is changing.
Across the global trading system, artificial intelligence, data analytics, automated risk management and digital platforms are reshaping how goods move across borders.
The customs officer of the future is increasingly expected to understand technology as well as regulations, analyse data as well as documents, and make faster decisions in an environment where international trade is becoming more complex by the day.
For Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies and a major trading hub, that transformation carries enormous consequences.
The question is no longer simply whether the Nigeria Customs Service can acquire new technology.
It is whether its people can acquire the skills to use that technology effectively—and whether the institution can continuously adapt as the technology itself evolves.
That is where the Service’s expanding emphasis on human capital development comes into focus.
Under Comptroller-General of Customs Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, capacity building has increasingly moved from the margins of administration to the centre of the Service’s modernisation strategy.
From international engagements at the World Customs Organisation headquarters in Brussels to artificial intelligence training in Abuja, specialist operational programmes and leadership development at the Nigeria Customs Command and Staff College in Gwagwalada, the Service is building a model in which institutional learning is treated as an essential component of reform.
The philosophy is straightforward: technology may power modern Customs, but people determine whether the technology delivers.
From training officers to transforming an institution
The shift became particularly visible during the 17th Session of the Capacity Building Committee of the World Customs Organisation, held in Brussels from February 25 to 27, 2026.
The Nigeria Customs Service did not simply present a catalogue of training programmes.
Instead, it used the international platform to explain how capacity development was becoming embedded in its wider reform architecture.
In a presentation titled “Communicating the Results of Capacity-Building Initiatives More Effectively: Nigeria Customs Service Experience and Lessons Learned,” the Service’s National Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada, outlined an approach centred on measurable institutional impact.
“The message was significant.Training, in the modern Customs environment, cannot be judged merely by the number of officers who attended a workshop or received a certificate. Its real value lies in what changes afterwards—whether clearance becomes faster, whether compliance improves, whether officers make better decisions and whether traders understand and trust the reforms.
Maiwada explained that the Service’s reform communication framework rests on three interconnected pillars: institutional capacity building, human resource development and stakeholder capacity engagement. That approach reflects a wider change in thinking.
A customs reform that exists only inside the institution is unlikely to succeed. Traders, logistics operators, importers, exporters and other stakeholders must understand the systems being introduced if digital reforms are to translate into practical improvements at the border.
One example is the Time Release Study.
Rather than relying on competing narratives about delays in cargo clearance, the exercise used data to show where time was actually being lost.The result was a more evidence-based conversation about performance.
The lesson extended beyond Customs.
When institutions communicate measurable outcomes rather than simply announcing activities, reform becomes easier to assess and accountability becomes harder to avoid. Why artificial intelligence matters at the border, the next frontier is even more demanding.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving from the realm of experimentation into practical government operations.
For a revenue-generating institution such as Customs, AI has potential implications across risk profiling, revenue collection, reconciliation, trade analysis and fraud detection.
But deploying such tools without adequately trained personnel can create a new problem: sophisticated systems being operated by people who do not fully understand their capabilities or limitations.
Nigeria Customs has sought to address that gap through specialised training on AI-driven revenue generation, remittances and reconciliation in Abuja.
The programme brought together senior Customs officers, technology experts and members of legislative oversight committees, reflecting an understanding that technology-driven reform requires cooperation across institutions.
Opening the programme, Adeniyi stressed the importance of technology in strengthening transparency and public financial management.
“We are united in our resolve to ensure transparency in public accounting,” he said, pointing to the growing role of technology in understanding patterns in international trade.
His message to participants was equally direct: learn, question and engage.“We want to reap the benefits of Artificial Intelligence collectively,” he said.
For Deputy Comptroller-General Kikelomo Adeola, the urgency is even clearer.
“Artificial Intelligence is no longer a concept of the future; it is a technology we must embrace to strengthen our systems,” she said.
That distinction matters.
The challenge for Customs is no longer whether AI will affect its operations. It is how quickly its workforce can adapt to a technology that is changing the nature of decision-making itself.
The skills behind the scanners, yet artificial intelligence represents only one part of the transformation.
Much of Customs modernisation still depends on specialised expertise in areas that may appear less visible to the public but are critical to the movement of legitimate trade.
The Service has expanded training in image analysis for Chief Examiners and Releasing Officers, strengthening the skills required for non-intrusive inspection.
It has also undertaken Post Clearance Audit training in partnership with the World Bank Group under the Accelerated Revenue Mobilisation Reform Programme.
Other programmes have focused on environmental trade regulations, fiscal reforms, illicit drug trafficking and other emerging operational challenges.
These initiatives point to a broader reality: the modern customs officer must be increasingly multidisciplinary.
An officer may need to understand trade rules, technology, financial systems, security intelligence and international regulations at the same time.That complexity is partly a reflection of globalisation itself.
Goods crossing Nigeria’s borders are connected to international supply chains, financial transactions, environmental obligations and security concerns that extend far beyond the physical border.
As a result, the capacity of Customs officers to understand those connections becomes an institutional asset.
Partnerships with organisations including the World Customs Organisation, World Bank Group, International Trade Centre and GIZ have helped expose the Service to international expertise and emerging practices.
Engagements with France, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and other partners have similarly strengthened cooperation around transnational threats. The objective is not simply to import foreign models.
It is to build a Nigerian Customs institution capable of learning from global experience while adapting that knowledge to the country’s own economic and security realities.
Building the leaders behind the reform Technology can change quickly, institutions do not.
That makes leadership development another critical component of the Service’s strategy.
At the Nigeria Customs Command and Staff College in Gwagwalada, officers are being prepared for responsibilities that extend beyond individual operational assignments.
The College’s Senior and Junior Courses are designed to develop middle- and senior-level officers capable of managing increasingly complex Customs operations.
When Senior Course 12 and Junior Course 21 commenced earlier in the year, the institution’s leadership framed the programmes as part of the wider effort to prepare Customs officers for emerging national and international challenges.
The then Commandant, Assistant Comptroller-General Oluyomi Adebakin, described the College as an important pipeline for producing officers capable of driving the Service’s agenda across its commands and units.
Deputy Comptroller-General Suleiman Chiroma, Commander of the Training and Doctrine Command, similarly described capacity building as central to repositioning the institution for changing global realities.
The importance of that investment became tangible with the graduation of 50 officers from Senior Course 14/2026.
Notably, officers from the National Public Relations Unit emerged as Overall Best and Second Best Graduating Students. The achievement was more than a ceremonial distinction.
It illustrated the increasingly broad definition of professional competence within modern Customs administration. An effective officer is not merely one who understands enforcement. Communication, leadership, analysis, integrity and strategic thinking are becoming equally important.
At the graduation ceremony, Chiroma reminded the officers that advancement comes with responsibility.
“To whom much is given, much is expected,” he told them, urging them to remain focused on the mission and serve with honesty, integrity and dedication.
A reform measured by people
There is a temptation in conversations about institutional modernisation to focus on the visible symbols of change—new scanners, digital platforms, automated systems and sophisticated technology. Those investments matter.
But technology does not reform an institution by itself. A digital platform cannot redesign a process unless people understand how to use it.
An artificial intelligence system cannot improve revenue collection if its users lack the skills to interpret its output. A sophisticated risk-management system can only be as effective as the institution’s ability to act on the information it generates.
That is why the Nigeria Customs Service’s growing emphasis on capacity building represents something larger than a training agenda. It is an attempt to address the human infrastructure behind institutional reform.
The strategy spans digital transformation, trade facilitation, border security, environmental governance, integrity, leadership and international cooperation. It also recognises that learning cannot be treated as a one-off event.
Global trade does not stand still. Neither does technology. Neither do the methods used by smugglers, fraudsters and organised criminal networks.
An institution that stops learning eventually becomes vulnerable to the environment around it.
The unfinished work
For all the progress, the challenge remains substantial. Nigeria Customs operates within a trade ecosystem involving government agencies, businesses, ports, transport operators, financial institutions and millions of Nigerians whose economic activities depend directly or indirectly on the efficiency of the border. Modernisation therefore cannot be measured only inside Customs commands.
Its ultimate test will be felt in shorter clearance times, improved compliance, stronger revenue assurance, better detection of illicit trade and a more predictable environment for legitimate businesses.
That places a continuing burden on the Service to demonstrate that training translates into measurable outcomes. It also makes stakeholder engagement indispensable.
The experience with programmes such as Advance Ruling and the Authorised Economic Operator initiative demonstrates the importance of bringing traders into the reform process.
Under the AEO Programme, about 120 companies achieved certification, while more than 3,270 officers were trained nationwide as AEO Champions.
Such figures matter not simply because they show activity, but because they reveal the scale of institutional change required to make modern trade facilitation work. The human side of digital Customs
Ultimately, the story unfolding inside Nigeria Customs is not really about technology. It is about adaptation.
A Customs administration designed for the paperwork-heavy world of yesterday cannot effectively manage the data-driven trade environment of tomorrow without changing the skills, mindset and leadership of its workforce.
That is the strategic bet behind Adeniyi’s emphasis on human capital. The investment is long-term.
Officers trained today will make decisions years from now. Leaders developed in Customs classrooms will eventually shape policy and operational culture. Knowledge acquired through international partnerships will influence how the Service responds to future challenges.
And the institutional culture created around continuous learning may prove more durable than any individual technology.
For Nigeria, the stakes extend beyond Customs. A more capable Customs administration can mean more efficient trade, stronger revenue collection, improved border security and greater confidence among legitimate businesses.
For the Service itself, the ambition is even broader: to build an institution capable of keeping pace with a rapidly changing global trading system.
The journey is far from complete. But the direction is increasingly clear.
In the new era of Customs administration, the most important infrastructure may not be found in scanners, servers or digital platforms.
It may be found in the knowledge, judgement, integrity and adaptability of the officers standing behind them.
For Nigeria Customs, the future of digital reform may ultimately depend on an old institutional truth: technology changes systems, but people sustain them.
