The Tin Can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has disclosed that it generated a total sum of N262.3 billion revenue from January to November this year.
The public relations officer of the command, Mr Uche Ejesieme, who gave the hint in Lagos, quoted the area comptroller in charge of the command, Mr. Yusuf Bashar, as making the disclosure when he received the delegation of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), Post-Mortem Sub-Committee on Friday.
The command comptroller, who said that the 2017 revenue generated by the command during the period was higher than the N233.5 billion generated in 2016, described the Committee’s visit as important, in view of the fact the nation was moving out of recession and the need to sustain the growth trajectory of the economy
Bashar told the lawmakers that the command had made significant progress in its core functions since his taking over the control of the command, listing some of the gains of the reforms he introduced to include, the construction of a training facility with 30 workstations for the training of the officers and other critical stakeholders.
He explained further that the command had started benefitting from the capacity building measures in terms of increased revenue generated and improved compliance by traders with requirements of fiscal policies.
Bashar said: “We recorded remarkable seizures of cocaine, valued at N2 billion according to a report handed over to us by the NDLEA. We also handed over recovered stolen exotic SUVs to Interpol Nigeria for onward repatriation to U. S. We also seized a cache of arms (pump action riffles totalling 2,010 which eventually necessitated the recent visit of Mr President to Turkey with other top government officials to see ways of curbing the menace.”
On what is required by the command to improve its operations, the customs chief suggested the need to upgrade the road networks to the port, and acquisition of scanners and other equipment while assuring the legislators of the command’s commitment to enhance the standard of its statutory functions through commitment to duty by its officers and men.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the committee, Dr Casimir Anyanwu, was reported to have commended the command over its recent achievements, pointing out that the objective of the sub-committee was to examine, across board, the accounts of the three tiers of government.
He explained that the exercise was being embarked on to ensure that all accruable revenue to the Federation Accounts is duly accounted for. This is even as he disclosed that the committee had the mandate of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali, (rtd) to visit Customs commands nationwide with a view to ascertaining their strengths, weaknesses and challenges.
While describing Tin Can Port as a major hub of revenue for the country, the lawmaker said that the committee would advise the Federal Government appropriately on its findings during the visit.
