The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Apapa Port Command of on Monday announced the collection of a staggering N1,023,663,842,255.63 between January and June, 2024 and affirmed the feat surpase the sum of N421,382,166,378.46 the command generated during the same period in 2023.
The 143 percent increase according to the cammand Comptroller, Babatunde Olomu was the result of its improved trade facilitation, revenue recovery and anti-smuggling strategies.
Briefing journalists in Lagos, he said “whereas this collection is coming despite a sharp reduction in the volume of trade, it is necessary to note that extra measures have been put in place to prevent losses of government revenue.
“Upon taking over as Area Controller of Apapa, I set up a revenue recovery committee comprising seasoned and dedicated officers with a mandate to carry out more detailed look into areas of leakages, especially in bonded terminals under Apapa Command.”
Within the period under review, the command said it seized 11 containers containing prohibited items such as expired and unregistered pharmaceuticals, foot-wears, used clothing, armoured cables and frozen poultry products, among others, with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N424,105,975.00, Olomu disclosed.
Giving the seizure for the corresponding period of 2023 as 42, with a DPV of N1.4 billion, the comptroller added that “just last week, we uncovered a large quantity of expired and unregistered pharmaceuticals in 3x40ft container numbers.”