The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr. Adewale Adeniyi, has reported that the revenue service raked in N4.49 trillion in his first year in office, representing 74% increase over the N2.58 trillion generated by the Service in the preceding year.
The Comptroller-General, who also spoke on the large quantum of contraband seized by the revenue agency between June 2023 and May 2024, disclosed that there had been a sustained increase of N343 billion revenue collection, representing 70.13% in the average monthly revenue of the Service during the period under review.
According to him, in the first quarter of this year, the revenue collected by the Service significantly improved by 122.35% as against the corresponding quarter of last year.
Adeniyi reported that as of June 13 this year, the Service recorded an all-time-high daily collection of N58.5 billion and attributed the improvement to strategic initiatives introduced by the Service.
He said: “It is also worthy to note that on June 13, 2024, NCS recorded a daily all-time-high of N58.5bn in revenue collection.”
He listed some of the strategies as including the N15 billion recovered by the “Revenue Review Performance Recovery exercise; N2.79 billion also recovered from the 90-day window for the regularisation of the documents of uncustomed vehicles; and N1.5 billion recovered from 1,705 overtime containers and 981 vehicles from the seaports”.
On the Service anti-smuggling operations, the Comptroller-General disclosed that the Customs recorded massive seizures of different goods, including 63 seizures of animal and wildlife products with duty paid value of N566 million.
He said: “Notably, the service recorded 63 seizures related to animal and wildlife products valued at N566 million. Additionally, seven seizures of arms and ammunition were made through our ports and borders. In terms of illicit drugs, a combined total of 127 cases involving narcotics and pharmaceutical products were seized, valued at over N6 billion.
The service also recorded 724 seizures of 2.93 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) that were attempted to be smuggled out of the country. The illegal dealings in petroleum evacuation have garnered the interest of relevant stakeholders, and the ongoing Operation Whirlwind will continue to intercept and disrupt the activities of smugglers in this regard.
“In a bid to guarantee food security and suppress the smuggling of food in and out of the country, the service recorded 1,744 cases of rice and grain seizures valued at N4.4bn. These concerted efforts underscore the NCS’s commitment to protecting society and ensuring national security”, the Comptroller-General added.
Adeniyi also explained that significant achievements were made by the Service in terms of trade facilitation such as the decongestion of ports and the reopening of hitherto inaccessible access roads.
He expatiated: “Similarly, the designation of a dedicated terminal for exports has yielded significant gains, facilitating the processing of export goods through the Lilypond Command.
“Initially handling 317 Single Goods Declarations in transactions, the terminal now manages 7,464 SGDs, accounting for 19.49 per cent of the total 38,294 export transactions recorded in 2023.
“By the first quarter of 2024, the service has processed a total of 10,786 transactions, with 3,162 (29.32 per cent) of these processed through the dedicated export terminal,” Adeniyi added.
