The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Apapa Port, Lagos hit an all-time high revenue collection of N201 billion raked into the Federal Government coffers in the month of July.
The July figure brings the Apapa Port Area Command’s revenue collections from January to July 2024 to a total of N1.22 trillion, the highest the service has ever collected from a single command within seven months.
The July collection is also the highest monthly collection in the history of Nigeria Customs Service.
Customs Area Controller of the Command (CAC), Comptroller Babatunde Olomu, who disclosed this on Wednesday, said he was committed to surpassing the existing records of revenue collection
According to the CAC, the collected revenue for seven months of 2024 is higher than the total revenue collected for the twelve months of 2023
He attributed the success to his implementation of the Comptroller General of Customs thrust of time release study to facilitate trade without delay. This move, according to him, yielded the outstanding results, which reflects in the command’s revenue collection.
Expressing confidence in the command’s ability to do better, Comptroller Olomu said, “I am optimistic about the possibility of beating this record as we look forward to surpassing it in months to come
“For the first seven months of 2024, that is January to July this year, the Apapa Area Command generated a total of N1,227,431,323,016.24.”
He explained that the amount generated within the seven months was above the total collected revenue by the command in 2023, which was N1.17 trillion.
He said: “In clear terms, our 2024 seven months collection is above last year’s twelve months total collection. Worthy of note is the interventions from the Tariff and Trade Department, which has contributed immensely to the successes achieved thus far.
Our compliance desk, dispute resolution team, Valuation, PCA, CIU and other units aimed at promoting seamless trade have been reinvigorated with daily,weekly and monthly evaluation by my office to oversee the progress we are making.
“We are committed to doing more in line with the directives and motivating examples of the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi.
Apapa Command handles the highest volume of trade for the NCS, collects the highest revenue, and therefore is saddled with a higher degree of expectation from the management of the service and the government.”
Comptroller Olomu met with stakeholders at the port before the commencement of the nationwide protests to assure them of customs availability for work during the period, a move that has further strengthened port users’ confidence
He advised Apapa port users to embrace only legitimate trade and restated that Apapa command is more alive to its responsibilities to detect all forms of concealment and plug any avenue for revenue leakage to the barest minimum.
