Cyberattack Disrupts Nigeria Customs Service Cargo Clearance Operations

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) suffered a cyberattack on its ICT platform, known locally as the “B’Odogwu” system. This platform is used to process cargo clearance and trade facilitation across Nigeria’s ports. The attack disrupted cargo clearance operations nationwide, effectively paralyzing the export/import workflow at major ports. It disabled the IT system that links customs data, port terminals, and clearance certifications.

The outage forced licensed customs agents, importers and freight forwarders to incur significant costs in the form of demurrage (storage) fees on containers that were delayed because they could not be cleared on time.

Estimated Cost

Nationwide cargo clearance disruption; costly demurrage/storage fees; import/export timeline distortion

Threat Source

Impacts

IT