Nigerian Customs Service

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is an independent agency under the supervisory oversight of the Nigerian Ministry of Finance, responsible for the collection of customs revenue and anti-smuggling efforts.

Today, the NCS is still run by the comptroller general, who oversees the work of five deputy comptroller generals in the following departments:

The NCS board is chaired by the minister of finance, while the vice-chairman is Col. Hameed Ali, the service’s comptroller general who is not a career Customs staff, but was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari with the aim reforming and revamping the institution.

The service’s reputation has been marred by numerous corruption and fraud scandals across the years. According to Transparency International’s 2010 Global Corruption Barometer, more than half of local households surveyed attested to paying bribes to NCS officers in 2009.

To date, complex customs regulations and bureaucracy surrounding the import and export of goods has nurtured an environment in which bribes are commonly paid. Several companies are also believed to undervalue their goods upon importation to avoid penalties. Yet other companies, operating in the informal economy, resort to smuggling as a means of avoiding legal trade.

Notably, a number of foreign companies have been involved in fraud and corruption scandals in recent years:

Outside of FCPA litigation, there are several examples of everyday Nigerian businessmen being urged to pay bribes to customs officials in order to smooth the passage of their goods. This has led some activists such as Valentine Achum to recommend far reaching reforms that would place corruption at the back seat and seal up revenue leakages.

...
Wikipedia