Eromosele Abiodun
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) thursday announced that it generated the sum of N1,341,690,568,327.18 for the year 2019 as against N1,202,448,733,244.89 generated in 2018, showing an increase of N139,241,835,082.29.
The NCS in a statement by its Public Relations Officer (PRO), Joseph Attah stated that the amount generated is over the target of N937,286,121,586 set for the year 2019.
The Comptroller General of the NCS, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (rtd) in the statement said the service achieved the revenue as a result of resolute pursuit of what is right, “rather than being populist by compromising national interest on the altar of individual or group interests.
According to him, “the service revenue generation profile has continued to be on the rise annually as the ongoing reforms in the Service insists on: Strategic deployment of officers strictly using the standard operating procedure and strick enforcement of extant guidelines by the tariff and trade department.
Others he added are, “automation of the Customs process thereby eliminating vices associated with the manual process, robust stakeholder sensitisation resulting in more informed/voluntary compliance and increased disposition of officers and men to put national interest above selves.”
He added that the partial border closure, which has forced cargoes that could have been smuggled through the porous borders to come through the sea and airports raised revenue collection from ports.
“Before the commencement of the border drill on August 20, 2019, revenue generation was between N4 billion to N5 billion but now NCS generate between N5 billion to N7 billion daily.
“The partial border closure is a decisive action against the challenging issue of trans-border crime and criminalities, fueled by the non-compliance to ECOWAS Protocol on transit of goods by neigbhouring countries.
“The NCS hopes that the ongoing discussions with our neighbours will yield permanent solution to the challenges of border security. The Service wishes to express its readiness to strictly implement the outcome of the ongoing diplomatic engagements,” he stated.
He added, “in the same vein the service efforts to prevent the entry of items that could compromise the security of our citizens, national economy and the well-being of our people resulted in the seizures of 30,906 assorted items with a duty paid value of N62,134,426,199.00.
“These seizures include arms, ammunitions, illicit drugs, used clothing, vegetable oil, frozen poultry and foreign rice among others that have grave consequences on economy security and well-being of Nigerians.
“While we give our assurances of total commitment to the course of nation building, we call on Nigerians, especially the business community to support the NCS on the ongoing drive to robustly contribute to National Security and create enabling environment for businesses to thrive in the country.”
