An advocacy, group, the Customs Consultative Committee (CCC), has expressed support for the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) in its drive to reduce clearance time by 40 per cent through improved digital integration.

The Secretary of the CCC, Eugene Nweke, made this known on Monday in Abuja.

The NCS’s Comptroller-General (CG), Bashir Adeniyi, recently unveiled findings of its Time Release Study (TRS) conducted at the Tincan Island Port with support from the World Customs Organisation (WCO).

Mr Adeniyi unveiled the findings at the 2026 World Customs Day on January 26.

A TRS is used to measure cargo clearance time at ports and borders and helps identify delays to reduce clearance time.

The study revealed that coordinated action across stakeholders could reduce clearance time by up to 40 per cent through improved digital integration and save three trillion Naira in demurrage and other costs.

The move is set to boost NCS competitiveness, with implementation already underway.

Mr Nweke said that the TRS, endorsed by the WCO, presented a strategic opportunity for trade operations in Nigeria to move from measurement to impact.

He assured the NCS of the committee’s support to achieve the feat.

He said, “In an era where competitiveness is measured in hours, not intentions, the TRS positions the NCS as a modern customs administration capable of diagnosing bottlenecks with precision.”

He said that for the NCS to achieve its reforms, the TRS should be seen as a diagnostic tool, not a fault-finding exercise, and a source of process intelligence, not institutional blame.

He said that when properly leveraged, the TRS empowers leadership to prioritise high-impact reforms, shields decision-making from unsubstantiated criticism and grounds policy choices in verifiable facts.

According to him, the TRS aligns with the customs CG’s core reform priorities of trade facilitation by objectively measuring clearance time and revenue assurance and by promoting predictability and voluntary compliance.

He said that the study also supported the CG’s key focus areas of port efficiency.

He stated, “It does that by identifying systemic dwell-time drivers, ease of doing business through measurable improvement indicators, alongside integrity and transparency by reducing discretionary bottlenecks.”

Mr Nweke said that the real success of the TRS was rooted in institutional response, including policy refinement, process simplification, optimisation of automation, improved inter-agency coordination and structured stakeholder compliance education

“Without this bridge, even the best data becomes a missed opportunity,” he said.

He said that the integration of TRS findings into management scorecards and key performance indicators could help the NCS to boost revenue performance.

He said that it could also help to improve accountability and strengthen reporting to the presidency, Ministry of Finance and international partners.

He stated, “The WCO-endorsed TRS is not an end in itself. It is a strategic national asset. When leadership drives the response and collaboration is structured rather than noisy, measurement translates into progress.

“As Nigeria deepens its trade facilitation and port efficiency reforms, the message is clear that measurement creates clarity and leadership turns clarity into progress.”

The NCS CG, while unveiling the TRS, described it as a major step towards making Nigeria’s trade gateways secure, efficient, predictable and globally competitive.

He said that the service would institutionalise the TRS as a regular diagnostic tool rather than a one-off exercise, with the intention of monitoring, learning and reforming continuously over future cycles.

(NAN)