The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) through its Comptroller-General, Adewale Adeniyi, has announced plans to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) for boosting revenue collection, enhancing remittances, and minimizing audit issues. This shift accompanies a proactive pivot in relations with lawmakers and fiscal bodies, moving from reactive summons to collaborative partnerships.
Key Highlights from AI Training Event
Proactive Engagement: Speaking at a three-day AI training workshop in Abuja, Adeniyi highlighted NCS’s invitation to National Assembly committees—like the Public Accounts Committee—flipping the traditional dynamic of legislative oversight. He emphasized shared goals of transparency, fiscal discipline, and efficiency across the revenue chain involving banks, auditors, and agencies.
- AI’s Role: Adeniyi noted AI’s potential to handle massive trade volumes, detect leakages, improve goods classification via machine learning, and enhance scanning systems. He urged stakeholders to adopt similar tech for maximum impact and called on officers to master it to cut future queries.
- Legislative Praise: House Public Accounts Committee Chairman Bamidele Salam commended NCS’s reform drive, clarifying that oversight focuses on compliance and governance, not punishment. He cited reduced infractions over 3 years and tied the initiative to Nigeria’s trillion-naira budgets demanding stronger revenue performance.
