Nigeria Customs Deploys AI for Revenue Collection as House of Reps Probes $460m CCTV Deal

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The Nigeria Customs Service is using artificial intelligence to boost revenue and cut leakages, even as lawmakers freeze CBN disbursements to ZTE Corporation over transparency concerns in a major CCTV project.

Two technology stories are defining Nigeria's digital governance conversation this week, one reflecting the promise of artificial intelligence in public administration, and the other exposing the risks of poorly managed tech procurement at the federal level. 

The Nigeria Customs Service has quietly taken a significant step by deploying artificial intelligence tools to enhance revenue generation and reduce what officials described as fiscal leakages within the import and export clearance system. The initiative reflects a broader push by revenue agencies to use data-driven approaches after years of reported losses from under-invoicing, smuggling, and manual processing gaps. 

Nigeria Customs Goes Digital 

The AI deployment is expected to improve cargo risk profiling, flagging high-risk consignments for closer inspection while allowing low-risk shipments to clear faster. This dual benefit, tighter compliance on one side and faster trade facilitation on the other, is the operating model that customs modernisation projects worldwide have aimed for. For Nigeria, where port congestion and delays have long been a drag on import-dependent businesses, even incremental gains in processing speed carry meaningful economic value. 

The Nigeria Customs Service has also been actively advancing a partnership with the African Continental Free Trade Area secretariat, aimed at unlocking cross-border trade and deepening cargo flows across West Africa. The combination of AI-powered screening and trade facilitation agreements could, if properly sustained, significantly reshape how Nigerian commerce interfaces with the rest of the continent. 

House of Reps Freezes ZTE Payments Over CCTV Project 

However, a far less encouraging technology story has been unfolding in Abuja. The House of Representatives' Ad-Hoc Committee investigating the $460 million CCTV surveillance project in the Federal Capital Territory has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to immediately suspend further disbursements to ZTE Corporation, the Chinese telecommunications giant awarded the contract.

Lawmakers raised serious concerns after ZTE officials appeared before the committee and provided what legislators described as vague responses, inconsistencies, and an inability to clearly account for where installed cameras are located, how many are operational, and what the full scope of the project covers. The resolution to freeze payments was reached following what one lawmaker described as an unsatisfactory session that raised more questions than it answered. 

The CCTV controversy is part of a broader national conversation about transparency in government technology contracts, a conversation that has grown louder as Nigeria has signed increasingly large agreements with foreign technology firms for surveillance, biometric, and digital infrastructure projects. Civic groups and opposition lawmakers are calling for full public disclosure of all contract terms before any further payments are made.