NCS Adopts Post-Clearance Audit to Cut Port Delays, Boost Revenue
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has adopted a Post-Clearance Audit (PCA) regime to reduce port delays and strengthen revenue assurance as it works toward the Federal Government’s N11.074 trillion revenue target for 2026.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, disclosed this on Thursday in Lagos at the NCS Post-Clearance Audit Sensitisation Programme, with the theme: “PCA Reform for Greater Compliance, Transparency and Revenue Protection”.
Adeniyi said the shift from physical intervention at ports to audit-based controls after cargo release was necessary to balance revenue collection with efforts to reduce costs, delays and other barriers to trade.
He said the NCS had a revenue target of N11.074 trillion for 2026, while collections as of June stood at N4.30 trillion, leaving a significant gap to be closed in the second half of the year.
The CGC said physical examination of containers could not generate revenue of such magnitude, stressing the need for Customs to identify consignments requiring intervention while allowing compliant traders to move their goods with minimal disruption.
Under the PCA regime, Adeniyi explained that Customs would rely on traders’ declarations during clearance and subsequently verify their accuracy through detailed examination of records after the cargo had been released.
“Containers have to move off the quays or the wharf. If every consignment must be opened at the ports before it is released, then revenue assurance and trade facilitation will pull in different directions,” he said.
Adeniyi said the PCA regime was in line with the Revised Kyoto Convention and Article 7.5 of the World Trade Organisation’s Trade Facilitation Agreement, to which Nigeria is a signatory.
He said Nigeria’s implementation commitment under the agreement currently stood at 94.1 per cent, with a timetable extending to 2029.
The CGC added that the NCS Act 2023 provided the legal foundation for verifying compliance after goods had been released, in line with international customs standards.
On the Time Release Study (TRS) conducted at Tin Can Island Port, Adeniyi said delays were not mainly caused by physical examination.
He said the study covered 601 import declarations involving shipping lines, terminals, the Nigeria Ports Authority, customs agents and banks.
“Findings showed containers spent about five days at the port before exit.
“Physical examination took only hours, while for 98.7 per cent of consignments, the period between booking for examination and exit averaged close to four days,” he said.
Adeniyi attributed the prolonged clearance period to manual processes, fragmented inter-agency coordination and waiting time.
He said PCA would reduce the number of consignments subjected to physical intervention by allowing Customs to verify compliance after cargo release.
He added that audit findings would feed into the NCS risk management system to improve targeting, reduce unnecessary interventions against compliant businesses and enhance overall efficiency.
Adeniyi acknowledged stakeholders’ concerns over appeal procedures for audit findings, assuring the trading community that the NCS was willing to review its standard operating procedures.
He also said the sensitisation programme would be extended to Onitsha and Port Harcourt.
The CGC urged importers and other operators to maintain accurate records, make truthful declarations and voluntarily disclose errors before they became liabilities.
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