FEATURE

By Chukwudi George Ozalla

For an institution that has spent most of its existence being known for what it collects, stops and seizes, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is gradually giving Nigerians another reason to pay attention to what it does. Its principal responsibilities have not changed. Customs still collects revenue, facilitates legitimate trade, protects the country’s borders and confronts smuggling. What is changing is the picture of the institution outside those familiar duties, particularly in communities where its officers and commands operate.

That change has been brought into sharper focus by Customs Cares, the NCS Corporate Social Responsibility programme which recently received the Commonwealth Environment and CSR Gold Award in Glasgow, Scotland. The award, presented on July 31, 2026, recognised the initiative for its work in education, healthcare, food security and environmental sustainability. According to the Service, Customs Cares has reached more than 10 million Nigerians in 12 states and the Federal Capital Territory through school renovations, healthcare interventions, clean water projects, food support and the Green Borders Initiative. The award was received on behalf of Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, by Deputy Comptroller-General Timi Bomodi.

Customs Cares is not simply another government programme announced at a public event and forgotten afterwards. The initiative was formally launched by the NCS on March 20, 2025, at Government Secondary School, Wuse Zone 3, Abuja, with six areas of intervention: education, healthcare, social investment, environmental sustainability, food security, and the cultural and creative economy. A year later, the Service returned to the same school to mark the first anniversary of the programme and commissioned another intervention there.

That continuity separates Customs Cares from the occasional community donation that public institutions make as part of an official engagement. The NCS has brought its social interventions under one programme with a defined structure and areas of concentration. Its official publications show projects involving schools, water, healthcare and environmental activities, while the Service continues to list Customs Cares among its programmes.

For an institution such as Customs, the decision to establish such a programme raises an important question about how a public agency should relate to the communities in which it works. The traditional image of Customs is easy to understand. At the ports and borders, officers inspect cargo, enforce customs laws, collect duties and prevent prohibited goods from entering the country. For traders and travellers, their most direct encounter with the Service is usually connected with one of those functions.

People living around border commands or major trade routes experience the presence of government differently. They live with the consequences of economic activity around the borders, the movement of goods and people and the enforcement operations conducted there. When the only visible relationship between an institution and such communities is enforcement, it is difficult for the public to see the institution as anything other than an arm of government that collects or restricts.

A classroom rehabilitation project presents a different kind of encounter. So does a healthcare outreach or a water facility. None of these activities replaces the work Customs is legally required to perform, but they give communities another way of judging the institution.

The NCS is one of the country’s major revenue-generating institutions, and its economic responsibilities have grown considerably. The Service collected ₦7.277 trillion in 2025, surpassing its approved target of ₦6.584 trillion. For 2026, it is working with a revenue target of ₦11.074 trillion. Its responsibilities also include trade facilitation and border protection, while the current management has been pursuing technological and procedural changes aimed at making customs operations more efficient.

Those figures put Customs Cares in context. The programme is being run by an organisation under enormous pressure to generate revenue for government while making legitimate trade easier and dealing with smuggling and other border-related offences. Its work cannot therefore be measured only by the number of classrooms renovated or communities reached.

What Customs Cares does is add another measure to the way the Service can be assessed.

Revenue remains essential. So does enforcement. But a public institution is also judged by the nature of its relationship with the people who encounter it. That relationship is particularly important for Customs because its officers operate at points where government authority, commerce and the daily activities of ordinary people meet.

The programme’s design reflects that understanding. At its launch, the NCS listed education, healthcare, social investment, environmental sustainability, food security and the cultural and creative economy as its six areas of intervention. The education component includes adoption of schools, learning materials and rehabilitation of facilities. Healthcare includes mobile clinics and medical outreaches, while the social investment component covers projects such as water and electricity infrastructure and skills acquisition. The environmental pillar includes tree planting and recycling, while food security involves support for agriculture and food-related interventions.

The range suggests that Customs Cares is not a single project but a framework through which the Service can respond to different needs in its host communities.

An institution that is better understood by its host communities may also have a stronger basis for cooperation. Border security, anti-smuggling operations and legitimate trade cannot be sustained by uniforms and laws alone. They depend on information, cooperation and some level of confidence between government officers and the people among whom they work.

That does not mean a borehole or a renovated classroom will make people overlook misconduct by an officer, nor should it. Social responsibility cannot be used to excuse poor service, corruption or abuse of authority. The credibility of Customs Cares will ultimately depend on the same institution continuing to meet the standards expected of it in its statutory responsibilities.

The Commonwealth award gives Customs Cares an important endorsement, but it also puts the programme under closer scrutiny. A project can look impressive when it is commissioned. Its real value becomes clearer months or years later. Does the school remain in good condition? Does the water facility continue to function? Do healthcare interventions produce benefits beyond the day of the outreach? Are environmental projects maintained? Are communities involved in determining what they actually need?

Those questions do not diminish the achievement in Glasgow. They are reasonable questions for any public institution receiving international recognition for community work.

The NCS itself appears to understand the need for continuity. When Comptroller-General Adeniyi marked the first anniversary of Customs Cares at Government Secondary School, Wuse, in March 2026, the intervention included renovation of facilities and installation of solar-powered lighting. The Service said the school had identified priority needs, particularly infrastructure and security, which guided the intervention.

That approach is more useful than simply arriving in a community with a predetermined project. If interventions are based on identified needs and the beneficiaries have a role in determining priorities, the possibility of achieving useful results becomes greater.

The environmental component of Customs Cares also deserves attention. Customs is a border agency, and its activities are closely connected to the movement of goods, people and vehicles across the country’s borders. The inclusion of tree planting and recycling, together with the Green Borders Initiative mentioned by the Service, gives the NCS an opportunity to connect its border presence with environmental concerns in the communities around those borders.

Government agencies are often known by their legal functions rather than by their actual effect on people’s lives. Customs collects revenue. Police enforce the law. Health agencies provide healthcare. Education authorities run schools. Yet the problems faced by communities rarely fit neatly into those institutional divisions.

A customs formation in a border community may therefore have a role to play in the community beyond the gate through which goods pass.

The balance, however, matters. Customs must not become so occupied with social projects that it loses sight of revenue collection, trade facilitation or border security. Its social responsibility programme must also produce results that can be measured beyond photographs from commissioning ceremonies. The strongest case for Customs Cares will always be the evidence of what the programme has achieved in the places where it has operated.

The Commonwealth award has drawn attention to an aspect of the NCS that would probably not have attracted the same international notice through revenue figures alone. It has put the Service’s community work into a conversation about corporate responsibility, environmental concerns and public service.

For Adeniyi and the management of the Service, the opportunity now is to make Customs Cares a credible and enduring part of the institution’s identity. That will require more than winning awards. It will require proper records of projects and beneficiaries, transparent selection of communities, maintenance of completed projects and a willingness to allow the results to speak for themselves.

The public should also be able to distinguish between a successful intervention and a successful publicity event. The two are not the same. A commissioning ceremony lasts a few hours. The usefulness of the facility commissioned should last much longer.

The most important measure of Customs Cares may therefore be found in the communities themselves. What can residents point to and say has changed? What has remained useful after the officials, cameras and guests have left?

The NCS will continue to be judged principally by the work for which it was created: the revenue it collects, the trade it facilitates, the borders it protects and the prohibited goods it keeps out of the country. Those responsibilities remain non-negotiable. But Customs Cares is adding another part to the public conversation about the Service.

It is giving Nigerians another way to encounter Customs: not only at the border where officers inspect goods and enforce the law, but also in the community where a school needs attention, a health facility needs support, a village needs clean water or an environment needs protection.

Whether that changes the public image of the Nigeria Customs Service over time will depend on what happens after the award. If the projects remain useful, if communities continue to benefit and if the programme is sustained with the same seriousness with which it has been presented, Customs Cares could become an enduring part of how Nigerians understand the Service.