By: OrePulse

Nigeria's Customs Service has unveiled a series of trade facilitation measures in response to concerns raised in the United States' 2026 National Trade Barriers Report over bottlenecks at Nigerian ports.

Comptroller-General of Customs Bashir Adewale Adeniyi said the agency intends to institutionalize quarterly engagement with the American Business Council as a permanent feature of its calendar. "We intend to institutionalize this as a permanent feature of the Customs calendar because of the importance we attach to this kind of engagement," Adeniyi said. The two organizations have met twice so far in 2026 — in Lagos early in the year and in Abuja on June 16 — with the quarterly cadence now proposed to continue.

National Public Relations Officer DC Abdullahi Maiwada outlined several measures the Customs Service has introduced to ease clearance delays, including the Authorized Economic Operator program, which offers preferential treatment to qualifying companies; an Advance Ruling initiative; the B'Odogwu cargo-clearance platform; improvements to Post Clearance Audit processes; and enhanced scanning integration. "We have introduced the Authorized Economic Operator Program, which some of the companies under the American Business Council can benefit from if they meet the requirements," Maiwada said.

American Business Council President Nneka Enwereji welcomed the engagement, calling the session "phenomenal" and saying it demonstrated the Customs Service's commitment to improving the ease of doing business in Nigeria.