The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has strengthened collaboration with six federal agencies to combat cross-border financial crimes, drug trafficking and terrorism financing.
The initiative seeks to improve intelligence sharing, inter-agency coordination and border security to protect Nigeria’s economy and national security.
The agencies are the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
Others are the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and National Counter-Terrorism Centre under the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
The NCS Spokesperson, Abdullahi Maiwada, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
Maiwada quoted Muhammad Shuaibu, Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs in charge of Headquarters, as announcing the initiative after a recent engagement with the agencies.
Shuaibu said the collaboration aimed to strengthen strategic partnerships, intelligence sharing and inter-agency coordination against threats to Nigeria’s economy and national security.
“The sole objective of this mission is to effectively detect and disrupt cross-border illicit financial flows,” he said.
He said the measures included field visits to selected border stations to assess Customs control operations and engage relevant agencies.
The Chief Executive Officer of the NFIU, Hafsat Bakari, commended Customs for its efforts against smuggling and strengthening border security.
Bakari, represented by Mohammed Mustapha, Chief Operating Officer, Intelligence Security Service Sector, described the relationship between both institutions as longstanding.
She noted that Customs was among the first agencies to collaborate with the NFIU following its establishment.
She said: “When NFIU was created, NCS was the first to collaborate with us.
“No particular agency understands things better than how Customs does globally.”
Meanwhile, a World Customs Organisation (WCO) mentoring team, led by Shahiduzzaman Sarkar, engaged participating agencies on strengthening Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) measures.
The team also called for stronger collaboration with Customs to ensure the initiative’s success.
Participants identified communication gaps, bureaucratic bottlenecks and database privacy concerns as challenges undermining effective inter-agency cooperation.
They also discussed measures to address the challenges and improve information sharing and institutional collaboration.
The initiative reflects the NCS commitment to strengthening partnerships against financial crimes and other activities threatening Nigeria’s economic stability and national security.
The engagement also featured the presentation of NCS awards and WCO certificates to participating agencies in recognition of their collaboration. (NAN)
