The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has introduced a Simplified Baggage Import Declaration System at the Seme Area Command, a major Nigeria-Benin land border crossing, to speed up passenger clearance and improve transparency.

The initiative allows passengers to declare baggage using their mobile devices or designated digital kiosks at the command.

The system uses standardised assessment tables to calculate duties on declared personal goods and automatically generates receipts after payment, reducing manual processes and discretionary assessments.

The Command’s Public Relations Officer, Tunde Ayagbalo, said the average clearance time since the rollout had dropped to less than five minutes.

“Within the first few days alone, revenue generated from passenger baggage declarations stood at N10.3 million,” Ayagbalo said.

He said the automated system provides a direct and transparent channel for remitting duties to the Federation Account.

Ayagbalo added that the system operates alongside strengthened enforcement measures, including risk management and intelligence-led controls to intercept attempts to conceal commercial quantities of restricted or prohibited goods as passenger baggage.