Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has officially listed Inland Containers Nigeria Limited (ICNL) facilities in Kano and its Kaduna Inland Dry Port among 17 bonded terminals, warehouses and Free Trade Zone enterprises verified and reconciled by the Comptroller-General’s Special Task Force on Transits (CGC-STFT) as being compliant with the requisite operating rules.
According to a recent circular dated 25 September 2026, referenced NCS/ENF/STFT/ABJ/HQ/VOL.1/NO. 21 and signed by TS Sanusi, Deputy Comptroller and National Coordinator of the CGC-STFT, 19 facilities whose positions have been verified and marked “Reconciled” were listed.
Items 8 and 9 on the list are: Inland Containers Nigeria Limited Kano and Inland Containers Nigeria Limited Kaduna also referred to as Kaduna Inland Dry Port.
Both carry the remark “Reconciled.” Other names on the same annex include Dangwauro Container Terminal Kano, enterprises operating in the Onne Oil & Gas Free Zone Authority, Enugu Industrial Park, AHL Energy FTZ, SPFL Base (Akwa Ibom), and several private bonded operators.
The CGC-STFT exercise is part of a wider drive to reconcile outstanding transire (transit) transactions before facilities can process new duty-suspended cargo movements.
Customs has required operators with unresolved positions to account for earlier transfers; until they do so, further transire processing, waivers or exceptional local clearances have been restricted.
The 25 September annex is an official record that ICNL’s Kano and Kaduna terminals have completed that verification. It directly contradicts any earlier circulating list or report that placed the two ICNL inland facilities and 15 others among unreconciled operators.
ICNL, incorporated in 1980, operates bonded terminals and the Kaduna Inland Dry Port which is Nigeria’s first and leading dry port noted for efficiency and compliance with government rules.
The company has long handled hinterland transfers from the seaports under Customs bond, with Customs presence at both Kano and Kaduna sites. It stands out with impeccable corporate integrity that has earned ICNL and KIDP multiple awards and recognitions.
The reconciliation drive sits alongside intensified enforcement against cargo diversion. In late 2025 the Service publicly reported seizures of 20 diverted transit containers with a duty-paid value of about ₦769.5 million in Kano and Jigawa, describing the practice as a breach of the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023.
Trade commentators have supported the principle of reconciliation before new transires are approved, while urging that the process remain time-bound and that operators who have cleared their books be restored to normal operations without indefinite restriction.
The 25 September list is presented as a continuation of an “ongoing verification and reconciliation exercise.” It does not claim that every bonded terminal or FTZ in the country has been cleared—only those so far verified. Facilities still outstanding remain subject to the earlier restrictions until they complete the same process.
