The Apapa Area Command of Nigeria Customs Service said it collected N676 billion revenue from January to August 2023.
Former Controller of the command, Assistant Comptroller General Auwal Mohammed disclosed this while handing over to his successor, Comptroller Babajide Jaiyeoba.
Speaking at the handover ceremony in Lagos on Tuesday, Mohammed urged officers of the command to rededicate themselves to service and surpass government expectations in revenue collection, prevention of smuggling and trade facilitation.
He applauded the officers for the feats they achieved together while he was the Area Controller.
“Teamwork, diligence and zero compromise assisted in several revenue and other operational successes that the command recorded under my watch. Apapa command collected its highest monthly and daily revenue in August 2023. A total of N136 billion was collected as monthly revenue in August while N10 billion was collected on August 3, being the highest monthly and daily collections in the history of the NCS,” he said.
Mohammed, who assumed office at the Customs headquarters as Assistant Comptroller-General (Technical Services), urged the officers to continually prevent the smuggling or importation of prohibited items.
He added that some of the seizures made within the eight-month period include N21.6 billion worth of tramadol packed in 720 cartons, containing 143.8 million units of 225 milligram tablets and weighing 10.3 tonnes.
Mohammed also said the command handed over 20 cartons of illicit drugs valued at N1.4 billion to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
On the use of technology for trade facilitation, he said the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS ll) depends on true and proper declaration to work well, adding that acts like false declaration accounts for most delays traders go through in the port.
The former Area Controller also said that the deployment of scanners has improved operations at the port, as an average of 120 containers are scanned daily as against the 50 that were hitherto examined.
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