By PETER ANOSIKE

Allegations of entrenched corruption have again trailed the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), following revelations by freight forwarders and anti-corruption campaigners that officials at Customs headquarters demand an illegal facilitation fee of N500,000 before forwarding applications for operating licences.

One of the victims, Livinus Igbo, alleged that after fulfilling all statutory requirements and obtaining clearance from an Area Controller, he was told to pay N500,000 in Abuja to move his application forward.

According to him, refusal to pay the money has stalled his business operations indefinitely.

He said that he was told to pay N500,000 in Abuja after his documents had already passed through the Area Controller.

Speaking further he said that he was told that without paying the money the process would not move a step further, adding that he did not have such money.

Confirming the development, the National President of the Petrot Anti-Corruption Initiative, a pressure group operating in the ports, Comrade Innocent Eke Okogboe, said that illicit demand has become a standard practice within Nigeria Customs Service.

He noted that while the official statutory payment for a licence stands at N515,000, applicants are forced to part with N500,000 unofficially before their documents are even considered.

His words: “When I visited Customs headquarters in Abuja to verify Chief Livinus Igbo’ documents, officials told me they had not received them. But when I returned to the Apapa Bond office, they admitted that the papers had been sent but insisted that N500,000 must be paid to facilitate the movement of the file. According to them, after paying this, the agent will still be required to pay the official N515,000. This is outright corruption, because the money goes into private pockets.”

Okogboe disclosed that the problem is not peculiar to Chief Igbo, noting that the N500,000 demand has been entrenched for years, with most agents reluctantly complying to avoid being frustrated out of business.

According to him, the illegality has become normalized, alleging that those who refuse to play along suffer indefinite delays of their documents.

He said that it is either they claim that the documents are missing, or the process would be deliberately stalled until money changes hands.

He also cited cases where containers already examined and released by Customs were later re-assigned or delayed by other Customs units, despite being duly cleared, thereby compounding costs for freight forwarders and importers.

The anti-corruption activist also condemned what he described as arbitrary increases in licencing fees, saying Customs had raised the cost of new licences from N1.5 million to N10 million and in some cases up to N20 million without justification.

He argued that such sharp increases in the cost of doing business would eventually be transferred to importers and ultimately to consumers, fuelling inflation.

“When you push licencing costs that high, freight forwarders will transfer the cost to importers, and the masses will bear it through higher market prices. That is why things are getting more expensive,” he explained.

Okogboe revealed that his organisation has petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the claims, warning that the alleged bribery racket undermines Customs’ reform agenda and Nigeria’s obligations under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). He maintained that unless corruption is confronted head-on within Customs, the Service’s objectives of trade facilitation and cost reduction will remain unattainable.

The revelations come at a time when the current Comptroller-General of Customs, Mr. Adewale Adeniyi, has been widely commended for modernisation efforts, including moves towards digitalisation.

However, industry operators insist that entrenched corrupt practices at the operational level are eroding public trust in Customs. Stakeholders say the allegations of a N500,000 bribe for licence approvals highlight the rot that persists within the Service and further call into question its commitment to transparency, fairness and trade facilitation.