Customs fetches N264.53b from Apapa command

Customs fetches 65.7% more than it did in Q1 2021

By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor

Apapa Area Command lived up to its billing as the fattest cash cow of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) by generating N264.53 billion revenue for it in the first quarter ending in March 2022 (Q1 2022), a rise of 65.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY).

The increase translated to N104 billion against N159 billion in Q1 2021, confirmed by Area Comptroller Yusuf Ibrahim.

“This feat was made possible because of our officers’ creativity and leveraging on the service IT platform to ensure all revenue leakage have been mitigated, as well as sustaining the level of compliance by the importers/stakeholders in the clearance value chain,” he said.

“The command recorded 46 seizures of various items with a duty paid value of N1,142,876,606.00 as against twenty-eight (28) seizures made in the corresponding months of the year 2021.

“These seizures include unregistered medicaments such as tramadol and codeine syrup, unprocessed wood, used clothing, footwear, foreign parboiled rice and other sundry items that falls under prohibition list.”

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$87.99m exports

Goods worth N34,072,869,799 with Free On Board (FOB) value of $87.992,356.10 million were exported in Q1 2022 against N30.2 billion equivalent to FOB value $82.1 million in Q1 2021, Ibrahim added, according to Nairametrics.

He urged all stakeholders to ensure items on the import/export prohibition list are strictly adhered to.

He said the command will keep on facilitating legitimate trade and ensure all forms of smuggling through false declaration of import/export are detected through multiple layers of control.

Bumper revenue in 2021

A total N2.3 trillion revenue was remitted to the treasury in 2021 by the NCS, N621 billion above the target set at N1.679 trillion at the beginning of the year – with a week to spare.

Year “2021 has been eventful for NCS, as it achieves major milestones, in spite of the debilitating effect of COVID-19, which has had negative effects on the socio-economic lives of people around the globe,” Timi Bomodi, NCS Deputy National Public Relations Officer, disclosed in Lagos.