The Apapa Area Command of Nigeria Customs Service said it has collected the sum of N413,732,818,554.19 ?as revenue between January and December 19, 2019against N404billion generated between January to December 2018.
The Command Area Controller, Comptroller Abba-Kura disclosed this on Friday while briefing newsmen on the activities of the command between January 1st to December 19th 2019.
Comptroller Abba Kura who disclosed that the amount generated into the federal government coffers represents a total 111% of the 2019 annual revenue target also said that the ongoing partial closure of borders in some parts of the country contributed to the command’s success in revenue collection.
He noted that the command had the highest revenue figure of N42, 726 billion in the month of October, which is the peak of the border closure which helps reduced the incidences of smuggling through land border and increased legitimate imports through the seaports tremendously.
In the area of anti-smuggling, Abba-Kura mentioned that within the period under review, the Command seized a total of 112 containers of various items that flouted import procedures, stating that most notable among these items are pharmaceutical products, which include tramadol that were imported without necessary approval from the appropriate quarters.
Other items as showcased include Tomato paste, vegetable oil, female fashion wears, expired rice, armored glasses without End User Certificate (EUC), drilling pipes labelled in foreign language, expired foreign parboiled rice among others with Duty Paid Value (DPV) for these seizures stood at N12.8 billion.
The seized items according to the command boss are in gross violation of Nigeria Customs extant laws and import guidelines.
As regards export within the period under review, he said the Command recorded a total volume of 262, 095.09 metric tons of exported goods with Free on Board (FOB) value of $132.760 million and disclosed that high level of compliance on export declaration played a key role.
He mentioned that most exported items were agricultural and mineral products. He therefore, urged exporters using the Apapa Port, to always ensure that minimum International standards are met before exporting their consignment to avoid the recurrent incidences of returning consignments after export.
He also appealed to the importers of pharmaceutical products to respect and comply with the country’s guidelines on importation of these products to rid the nation of counterfeited and prohibited medicaments with its attendant consequences to the nation.
On training and retraining he added that the flagship command of the service also trained a total of 400 personnel in general aspect of its operations with a view to maximizing their productivity.” The results we are seeing today is the product of that training in addition to other mechanism like 24 hours dispute resolution, maintaining an open door policy to address complains , constant engagement with stakeholders as well as support by management of the service and sister agencies operating within the port.” he said.
