The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital tracking tools to counter fake news and online scams capable of damaging its reputation.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, represented by the Service’s National Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller Abdullahi Maiwada, disclosed this at the recently concluded NECCIPR Roundtable 2026 in Lagos.
The event was themed “Algorithm Influence and Public Relations”.
Maiwada said “effective communication was essential to ensuring that the public understood and accepted the duties performed by Customs officers.”
He said AI had become important to the Service’s operations and strategic communication, including risk management and the assessment of imported goods.
“Over the years AI has been deployed in our core operational duties as well as strategic communication. AI has also been deployed to aid risk management, which involves assessment of the risks in imported items so that they can be categorised according to their different levels of risk to enable appropriate customs interventions,” he said.
Maiwada explained that “AI could also analyse public sentiment and help the Service understand how people perceived its activities.”
He said the Service was using available platforms to establish facts and collaborating with other agencies to apprehend those responsible for spreading misleading information.
The convener of the NECCIPR Roundtable 2026, Nkechi Ali-Balogun, said the programme was founded on the belief that public relations professionals should not only manage messages but also shape national discourse.
She said the theme addressed concerns about the growing influence of algorithms and artificial intelligence on the information Nigerians consume and believe.
“When machines decide what we see, who is really shaping the Nigerian mind? Who now controls the flow of information that shapes what Nigerians believe?” she said.
Ali-Balogun added that a single algorithm could influence political narratives, spread conspiracy theories and shape what millions of people read, believe and share.
The event featured keynote addresses by the President and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Ike Neliaku, and former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, among other guests.
Their participation, the organisers said, reflected a shared commitment to promoting credible and trustworthy information.
