Exporters risk jail for drugs in consignments, NDLEA warns

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has warned aspiring exporters that carrying illicit drugs in consignments could lead to imprisonment, destroy their business reputations and damage Nigeria’s access to international markets.

The agency’s chairman, Brig Gen Buba Marwa (retd.), gave the warning on Wednesday at a masterclass organised by the Aspire Women Forum in Abuja, urging women and young entrepreneurs seeking access to foreign markets to verify their shipments and business partners before sending goods abroad.

“Know exactly what you are shipping. Verify your partners and your transactions. Never carry a package you did not pack, and never let your goods be used for trafficking,” Marwa said.

He warned that a single contaminated consignment could cost an exporter freedom, tarnish their family’s reputation and jeopardise markets painstakingly developed by Nigerian businesses.

Marwa spoke at the Aspire Women Forum masterclass, themed From Survival to Thriving: Empowering Women and Youth for Export Readiness, Global Market Access and Prosperity under the Renewed Hope Agenda, held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He urged participants to protect the integrity of their businesses as carefully as their profits, stressing that export success depended on reliable products, proper standards, accurate documentation and dependable service.

The NDLEA boss also warned participants against substance abuse, describing drug use and illicit trafficking as threats capable of destroying the ambitions they were seeking to realise through entrepreneurship.

“Do not let pressure, disappointment, curiosity or the desire to belong draw you into drugs. Drugs solve no business problem and end no hardship; they only multiply them,” he said.

Marwa urged participants to make deliberate choices about their associations and business dealings, adding that the pressure to earn a living should not expose them to criminal activity.

He said people struggling with drug dependence should seek assistance without shame, disclosing that the NDLEA operated a 24-hour toll-free helpline, 080010203040.

According to him, calls are handled by trained professionals, including clinical psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists, in English, Pidgin, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.

He urged parents, mentors and community leaders to guide people needing help towards treatment rather than isolate them.

Marwa also pledged the agency’s readiness to partner with the Aspire Women Forum through its War Against Drug Abuse social advocacy campaign.

Vice-President Kashim Shettima, represented by the Special Assistant to the President on Humanitarian Affairs and Development Partners, Inna Binta Audu, said Nigeria’s ambition to build a $1tn economy depended on expanding productive enterprise and enabling more citizens to create value.

“What makes this initiative particularly valuable is its emphasis on practical knowledge. The true measure of this masterclass will not be the number of people in this hall, but the number of businesses that become stronger, the number of entrepreneurs who reach new markets and the number of livelihoods transformed by what is learnt here,” Shettima said.

He said women and young people must be central to the country’s economic development, arguing that inclusion should extend beyond training programmes to access to markets, finance and institutions that could turn skills into sustainable income.

“Women and young people must occupy a central place in that ecosystem. Their economic participation expands our productive capacity, strengthens household incomes, creates employment and widens the opportunities available to future generations,” he said.

He added, “But inclusion must mean more than access to a training programme or the announcement of an empowerment initiative. It must mean access to the tools, institutions and markets that enable people to convert their skills into sustainable income.”

The founder and president of the Aspire Women Forum, Zainab Marwa, said many Nigerians worked long hours producing goods and providing services but struggled to retain income because of gaps in record-keeping, business registration, access to suitable finance, packaging and connections to buyers.

She said the masterclass was designed to help entrepreneurs understand how to access available government support and prepare their businesses for wider markets.

Marwa said the forum had included young men alongside women and young women because unstable income affected entire households. She added that its support would continue after the event through mentoring, referrals and further learning.

The masterclass focused on export readiness, global market access and practical steps entrepreneurs could take to grow their businesses beyond subsistence-level trading.