By George Ozalla
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has pledged to sustain the fight against money laundering and prevent Nigeria from returning to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, represented by the Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of Finance, Administration and Technical Services, Kikelomo Adeola, gave the assurance on Monday, October 26, 2026, at a stocktaking meeting held at the Customs headquarters in Abuja ahead of Nigeria’s next Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) mutual evaluation.
Adeola described the meeting as an important opportunity to assess the progress made, identify existing gaps and develop strategies to sustain the gains recorded in strengthening Nigeria’s financial integrity.
She warned that the country must not allow its achievements to be reversed, stressing the need for continued commitment from all institutions involved in the fight against financial crimes.
“It is an opportunity to take an honest look at the progress Nigeria has made so far, identify the gaps that presently exist and ensure that Nigeria’s achievements are sustained, because if they are not, it is like one step forward, two steps backwards, and that should not be our portion,” she said.
Adeola commended the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) for its initiatives and programmes aimed at preparing Nigeria for a successful mutual evaluation, expressing confidence that the country would not return to the FATF grey list.
“I believe Nigeria will never go back to that grey list,” she declared.
She noted that the Customs Service occupies a strategic position in the fight against money laundering because of its responsibility for monitoring the movement of goods and facilitating legitimate trade across Nigeria’s borders.
However, she stressed that the Service could not achieve the objective alone, noting that effective collaboration among relevant institutions remained necessary to sustain the progress made.
“A tree does not make a forest,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of the Chief Executive Officer of the NFIU, Hafsat Abubakar, the Chief Operations Officer, Law Enforcement Support and Coordination, Emmanuel Sotande, thanked the Customs Service for hosting the meeting and engaging with delegates and assessors on the issues surrounding the country’s preparedness.
Sotande said the stocktaking exercise provided an opportunity to examine the progress made, identify outstanding gaps and strengthen the readiness of relevant institutions for the next evaluation.
He noted that the exercise would also help assess how effectively institutions were implementing the standards designed to protect Nigeria’s financial system against money laundering and other financial crimes.
Sotande described Nigeria’s removal from the FATF grey list as a collective achievement and said the priority was now to demonstrate that the progress recorded could be sustained.
“Nigeria’s exit from the FATF grey list in October 2025 was a significant achievement that we all achieved by working together,” he said.
He explained that the Customs Service played an important role in the country’s anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing and counter-proliferation framework, in addition to its core responsibilities of revenue collection, trade facilitation and border enforcement.
According to him, the Service’s access to import and export documentation, cargo information, trade records and border intelligence provides valuable information that complements the financial intelligence gathered by the NFIU.
“Customs plays a vital role in detecting suspicious transactions and activities across borders,” he said.
Sotande added that effective information sharing and coordinated action between the Customs Service and other relevant agencies would strengthen the identification of suspicious networks, the tracing of illicit proceeds and the enforcement of measures against financial crimes.
