Nigeria keeps building expensive infrastructure at its borders, but the money expected to pass through those shiny facilities still disappears in ways that make many citizens wonder whether the country is upgrading systems or simply repainting old problems.

Development Diaries reports that a retired Customs officer, Seyi Adeyemo, recently raised concerns over continued revenue losses at the Seme border despite billions of naira invested in upgrading the facility through World Bank-supported infrastructure projects.

The upgraded border now has modern scanning equipment, expanded lanes, holding areas, administrative buildings, and digital processing systems designed to improve efficiency and increase government revenue collection.

But the central complaint remains painfully familiar because while the infrastructure looks modern, the governance system managing it reportedly still behaves like the old Nigeria many citizens already know too well.

Nigeria has seen hospitals commissioned without enough staff and roads completed without maintenance plans. Even the Mabuchi and Kugbo taxi and bus terminals commissioned in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in June 2025 have remained largely lifeless one year later, looking more like abandoned monuments to ribbon-cutting ceremonies than functioning transport hubs.

The Seme border controversy is now raising a similar concern because while the scanners and buildings may have improved, many citizens fear the loopholes through which revenue allegedly disappears may still be comfortably operating inside the upgraded system.

Revenue leakage problem 

Multiple investigations over the years, including findings from the Nigeria Customs Service itself, have repeatedly identified patterns involving under-valuation of imported goods, false product classification to reduce duties, unofficial payments to avoid inspection, and informal clearance channels operating beside formal systems.

The retired customs officer’s alarm suggests that these patterns may still be undermining the Seme border despite the expensive upgrades. In simple terms, Nigeria may have purchased more advanced equipment for a system whose accountability problems were never properly fixed.

This is why many traders and transport operators around Nigerian borders sometimes joke that corruption in some public institutions behaves like a tenant who refuses to leave even after the landlord renovates the entire building.

The problem also stretches beyond Seme because similar allegations around under-declaration, unofficial payments, and weak enforcement have surfaced repeatedly at Apapa Port, Tin Can Island, and several northern border corridors.

Infrastructure alone cannot solve governance failure

Nigerians expected the Seme upgrade to improve border efficiency and increase government revenue collection from cross-border trade along the busy Nigeria-Benin corridor.

That expectation sounded reasonable because more efficient scanning systems and better processing lanes should theoretically reduce smuggling and improve compliance.

However, the difficulty is that infrastructure does not automatically reform the human systems controlling it, as a modern scanner cannot expose undeclared goods if the official supervising the scan has already decided to ignore what appears on the screen.

It is understood that digital clearance systems also struggle when traders believe unofficial shortcuts remain faster, cheaper, and more predictable than the formal process. This is where the governance problem sits because Nigeria often treats infrastructure like a magic solution to institutional failure when the actual challenge is usually accountability.

Nigeria may still be losing huge customs revenue

The West African country Nigeria depends heavily on customs revenue as one of its major non-oil income sources, especially as the government continues to search for ways to reduce dependence on crude oil earnings.

Monthly Customs revenue figures are regularly announced with public celebration, but what remains less visible is the gap between what major border posts should potentially generate and what they actually deliver.

Trade analysts and researchers have long suggested that informal trade around Seme remains extremely large, meaning substantial volumes of goods may still bypass formal revenue collection systems entirely. If a significant portion of trade continues to move through unofficial channels, then modern infrastructure alone may only improve efficiency for the smaller share already using formal processes while leaving the wider leakage problem untouched.

The implication is serious because every naira lost through border corruption or weak enforcement becomes money unavailable for healthcare, education, salaries, roads, and public services that citizens are constantly told the government cannot adequately fund.

System analysis

What appears to be failing is the accountability system surrounding customs operations, and the recurring allegations point towards weak oversight mechanisms, inadequate monitoring of officers handling high-value transactions, and institutional systems that allegedly still allow too much discretionary power around clearance processes.

The situation also exposes broader coordination weaknesses between anti-corruption agencies and customs oversight systems because while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and Customs authorities all possess overlapping responsibilities around corruption monitoring, Nigerians rarely see sustained public accountability tied specifically to border revenue leakages.

The Ministry of Finance and the National Assembly also face questions because citizens rarely receive detailed public performance audits comparing projected revenue targets at upgraded border facilities with actual outcomes after billions of naira have already been invested.

What the law says 

Section 16 of Nigeria’s constitution requires the state to manage major sectors of the economy in ways that secure the welfare of citizens. Customs revenue is public money, and when that revenue allegedly disappears through corruption, weak oversight, or informal systems, the damage goes beyond administrative inefficiency because citizens ultimately pay the price through underfunded services and worsening economic pressure.

The issue, therefore, stops being only a customs problem and becomes a governance and accountability issue directly connected to citizens’ everyday lives.

Gender and equity lens

Many of the traders operating through informal border channels are women dealing in food items, fabrics, household products, and small-scale consumer goods. These traders often avoid formal systems because formal clearance processes can become expensive, unpredictable, slow, and heavily dependent on unofficial payments.

For many small traders, navigating the formal system without paying extra unofficial charges can feel like trying to enter a Nigerian office where everybody keeps directing you to ‘see one oga first’ before your file moves.

A properly functioning customs system with transparent procedures, predictable costs, and reduced discretion would improve revenue collection and reduce the burden placed on small-scale traders who currently suffer most from unclear processes and unofficial charges.

Calls to action

Citizens and civil society organisations should begin to demand more detailed transparency around border revenue performance, especially at upgraded facilities like Seme.

Revenue figures before and after infrastructure upgrades should be publicly compared against import volumes to determine whether the investments are actually delivering the improvements taxpayers were promised.

The National Assembly should also commission an independent audit of the Seme border investment to examine whether the infrastructure upgrades achieved their stated objectives and what governance failures may still be undermining revenue collection.

Nigeria cannot continue to treat institutional reform like an optional side discussion while expecting infrastructure alone to solve problems rooted in accountability failure.