Apapa Customs generated N790.6 billion revenue in 9 months

Apapa Customs generated N790.6 billion revenue in 9 months

The Controller of Apapa Customs Command Comptroller Yusuf Malanta Ibrahim has stated that the command has collected a total sum of Seven hundred and ninety billion, Six hundred and thirty million, Four hundred and six thousand, Nine hundred and eighty naira, Ninety-six kobo (N790,630,406,980.96) as revenue generated between January September 2022.

This was made known  while briefing the press on the activities of Apapa command in Apapa.

He said "In the period under review, the command has collected revenue to the tune of Seven hundred and ninety billion, Six hundred and thirty million, Four hundred and six thousand, Nine hundred and eighty naira, Ninety-six kobo (N790,630,406,980.96). 

This shows an exponential improvement of N181.5 billion as against N609 billion naira collected in the corresponding months of the year 2021, representing 29.8% increment. This remarkable achievement was made possible because of our officers' tireless commitment to ensure that all revenue leakages are being mitigated, as well as sustaining the level of compliance by the importers/stakeholders in the clearance value chain."

He explained that main focus of the command is  anti-smuggling activities  "especially with the activities of some unrepentant traders.

He hinted that the command has fortified its forensic manifest management to monitor and detect fraudulent transaction through audit trial to ensure that illicit trade are being tracked before the declarations are lodged.

"Furthermore, the enforcement unit has been reinforced through improved collaboration and sharing of credible intelligence with relevant government agencies to suppress smuggling activities to its barest minimum. For the period under review, the command recorded one hundred and forty-five (145) seizures of various items with a duty paid value (DPV) of Twelve billion, four hundred and ninety-six million, six hundred and seventy-two thousand, one hundred and twenty-two naira (N12,496,672,122.00)."

According to him, the seized items to are: unregistered medicaments such as tramadol and codeine, processed/unprocessed wood, used clothing, ladies men's footwear, foreign parboiled rice, tomato paste, vegetable oil and other sundry items that falls under import/export prohibition list."These importations are in clear breach of sections 46 and 47 of Customs and Excise Management Act, CEMA CAP C45 LFN 2004.

"At this point, let me reemphasize that Apapa Command is continuously ready to assist in facilitating legitimate trade and ensuring that all forms of smuggling activities through false declaration on import/export done in defiance to extant trade guidelines will be detected through our layers of control mechanism.

"I want to crave the indulgence of our esteemed stakeholders to join hands with the command and ensure that items that are on the import/export prohibition list are strictly adhered to, and urge them to embrace the emerging realities of customs examination through non-intrusive inspection, NII, regime. 

The non-intrusive inspection regime is geared towards increasing volume of cargo inspection, protection of national security, saving cost/clearing time, storing reliable data and images for reference purposes, and reducing human contact in the examination of containerized cargo." He stated.