The Kano/Jigawa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has achieved a ₦100bn revenue collection as at October 5, 2026 thereby setting unprecedented revenue record in the command’s history.
The recent revenue feat, achieved under Deputy Comptroller Usman Umar Adamu, shows the command’s prospect of meeting and surpassing it’s ₦112.72bn total collection made in 2025 with two months and three weeks left to be covered before the end of 2026.
Customs Public Relations Officer, Tahir Balarabe who confirmed the figures to our reporter on Monday, said despite low cargo throughput, the Acting Controller has consistently ensured seamless trade facilitation, preventing revenue leakage and encouraging stakeholders on the path of compliance.
Acting Controller Adamu who assumed duty on on 31 December 2025 , sustained and extended the revenue and enforcement gains of the previous year.
A background on the command’s revenue growth trajectory shows that between January and June 2026,the command generated ₦63.08 billion, a 7.4 per cent rise on the ₦58.39 billion collected in the same period of 2025.
Presently, The Kano Free Trade Zone alone has yielded over ₦48 billion this year, against ₦22 billion in all of 2025, after tighter documentation and oversight.
As at half year, the Free Trade yielded more than ₦26 billion in those six months, exceeding its entire 2025 collection by about ₦4 billion where about ₦3 billion was recovered by tightening controls on the abuse of transit procedures. July 2026 produced more than ₦14 billion, the highest monthly collection in the command’s history.
By early September, year-to-date revenue stood at ₦88.925 billion. Enforcement matched the revenue performance.
On enforcement as at half year, the command made seizures worth a Duty Paid Value of ₦1.71 billion and included unregistered pharmaceuticals such as tramadol and pregabalin, four air pistols, elephant tusks, more than 2,000 jerrycans of foreign vegetable oil, military uniforms, smuggled vehicles, foreign rice, pasta, counterfeit agrochemical packaging and a drone imported without an End User Certificate.
At Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, officers intercepted undeclared currency and negotiable instruments — including $568,100, 134,256 Saudi riyals and 35 kilograms of silver bars in the first half — with the running total later put above ₦2.5 billion. In late September a passenger arriving from New Delhi was found with an undeclared $265,000 and handed to the EFCC.
On 25 August 2026 an intelligence-led stop on the Kano–Daura road produced what the command described as possibly the largest and most diverse wildlife seizure in the Service’s history: 48 specimens, among them chimpanzees, baby gorillas, caracals, albino crocodiles and a honey badger. Three suspects were arrested and transferred to the Special Wildlife Office.
Adamu attributed the results to end-to-end transit monitoring, a real-time revenue dashboard, tighter bonded-terminal clearance and closer work with the Free Trade Zone and sister agencies.
The Acting Controller’s priority on taking over was to lock in 2025 gains which included most-improved command in revenue, best stakeholder engagement, Best Controller, and best PRO—through a full review of operations, procedures, and indicators.
Adamu, according to Balarabe, produced a Strategic Revenue and Compliance Committee, to monitor transire reconciliation, oversee end-to-end transire dispatch system, tighter border collections, and revised airport clearance, alongside intelligence-led enforcement.
Sustainability is framed as systems, not a one-off spike. Transit abuse is tracked from mother-port documentation through bonded terminals and the zone; national fixes still needed are technology, process integration, and cross-command data sharing.
Additional innovation achieved under Adamu includes a real-time revenue dashboard and piloting engagement on e-cargo tracking, the One-Stop-Shop, and the National Single Window.
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