The acting Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, said the Nigeria Customs Service has surpassed its N307billion target for revenue collection by generating an average of N343 billion in two months (July and August 2023).
This represented a 70.13 per cent boost in collection compared to N202 billion recorded in the first half of the year.
Speaking at a media briefing to commemorate his first 100 days in office, Adeniyi said the service has consistently exceeded the monthly revenue target of N307 billion, marking a remarkable departure from previous performances.
He pointed out that the ongoing revenue recovery review activities contributed an additional N8 billion during the review period, further underlining the new administration’s commitment to revenue generation.
“Subject to unforeseen circumstances, our aim is to sustain and even expand this momentum until the end of the year. This commitment is driven by our resolve to minimise the deviation from the target, especially in light of the substantial shortfalls recorded during the first half of the year.
“The service was handed a revenue target of about N3.6 trillion in 2023, implying that it must collect about N307 billion monthly to meet the mark,” he said.
The Customs chief noted that uncertainties in the first half of the year, including the general election and currency swap among others negatively impacted its performance.
“We are witnesses to what happened in the first half of the year; the uncertainty, the currency swap, the elections, and all the crisis. In the first part of the year, we were practically struggling to collect an average of about N200 billion per month.
“But since July and August, we have reviewed our strategies and we have been doing better and it’s about N343 billion. And if we maintain this momentum, we hope that we will be able to at least cover the shortfalls that we have recorded in the first half of the year. We are not saying the target is impossible; we will do our best to ensure the shortfall recorded in the first part of the year is recovered,” he said.
Also commenting on the smuggling of petroleum products in view of the comparative cost of buying premium motor spirit across the west coast, he said, “We are not there yet, at a level where we could say the smuggling of petroleum products has been controlled 100 per cent but the incidence of smuggling from our seizure report has greatly reduced. We have also done this analysis and what our seizure report has shown is that the incidence of smuggling still persists.
“Sometimes, it is not about the comparative cost; sometimes, smugglers and those who patronise these smugglers also look at the quantity of the PMS. One of the intelligence that we got from our neighbouring countries tends to suggest preference of PMS in Nigeria because of the quality. The statistics tend to show that there is a reduction in the smuggling of petroleum products across the borders.”
