The Nigeria Customs Service, Ports and Terminal Multiservice Limited (PTML) Command said it handled export goods with a total tonnage of about one hundred and ninety nine thousand, four hundred and eighty seven (199,487) metric tons in the year 2021.
The Area Controller in charge of the Command, Comptroller Festus Okun who made this known while addressing the press at the command, disclosed that the Free On Board (FOB) value is to the tune of one hundred and thirty two billion, four hundred and fifty one million, eight hundred and nineteen thousand , six hundred and forty one naira , sixty two kobo (N132,451,819,641,62).
Comptroller Okun hinted that the export goods are coco beans, gum arabis , sesame seeds and some other local items.
Speaking on the command revenue generation for the year under review, Comptroller Okun said that the command generated a total revenue of two hundred and twenty four billion, four hundred and seventy million, one hundred and thirteen thousand, seven hundred and thirty three naira (N224,470,113,733.00) only.
Adding that the amount generated represents about ninety four percent of the revenue target of N238,224,920,038.88 set for 2020 which the Command adopted in 2021, showing an increase of N35,122,548,424.00 when compared with the N189,347,565,309.00 total revenue generated in the previous year 2020.
Comptroller Okun disclosed that the command made some seizures in the year 2021 which comprise of four container of which 3 are 40ft and 1x20ft found to contain bags of rice, vegetable oil, drinks, vehicles pharmaceutical product among others with duty paid value of N55,529,285.00 only.
“The seizures were effected because the importations were done in contravention of extant laws. Vegetable oil is listed under Schedule 111 of the Common External Tariff (CET) prohibition” he said.
The Command which port is mainly designed to handle Roll-on-Roll- off cargo (vehicles, machinery and equipment) sustained measures put in place for trade facilitation “The Command sustained and improved on various measures emplaced to enhance facilitation of legitimate trade. Some of these measures were in the area of capacity building for officers, strengthening of the dispute resolution Committee and building a strong team for quality service delivery, thus engendering ease of doing business. We have a functional help-desk while we keep our doors open to stakeholder for direct access”
Speaking on security issues, the Command boss said “The Command
attaches so much importance to the issue of national security. Hence, our officers carefully conduct physical examination of cargo to make sure that all importations are done in strict compliance with extant laws, especially in the area of compliance with regulatory requirements for controlled items and enforcement of import prohibition laws”
He however added that robust relationship exists among the various government agencies operating in the Command like the Nigeria Police, NDLEA, NAFDAC, SON, NESREA among others, while maintaining cordial relationship with the various stakeholders operating in the port.
Comptroller Okun however disclosed that despite the achievement recorded in the year under review, the command encounter few challenges which he stated to include; poor state of the port access road and the accompanying gridlock which impacted negatively on the turn-around time for the movement of cargo outside the port, and movement of export cargo into the port. It also affected movements of officers and other Stakeholders.
The volatile nature of the command environment is another challenge faced during the period which he said was well controlled with effective Stakeholders engagement.
He added that the issue of One hundred percent (100%) physical examination of containerized cargo was also part of the challenges faced in the same period and it is due to absence of Scanners in the port. “We are hoping that this will soon be a thing of the past once the e-Customs project is fully implemented” he said.
In his word ” I wish to state that in spite of the challenges faced in the year 2021, it was a successful year for the Command, having been able to improve on our performances in the year when compared with the previous year, 2020.
“As regularly done, we have conducted our “SWOT Analysis,” and mapped out strategies to build on the successes recorded in the year 2021. We will build and improve on our areas of strength, work on weaknesses identified, take our opportunities right from the low hanging to the challenging ones and put measures in place to deal with the threats.By so doing, we forecast a better performance in the year 2022.
“Moving forward, our projections for the year 2022 is to be able to consolidate on the gains of the year past (2021) in the areas of faithful and effective implementation of government fiscal policies, raising the level of compliance by all critical stakeholders in the supply- chain” Okun quipped.
