Apapa Customs Breaks Records, Generates N55bn In One Month

The Apapa Premier Port Command of the Nigeria Customs Service broke records last month by generating the highest revenue in the history of the command.
The command generated N55 billion as revenue in the month of March.
The Area Comptroller of the command, Ibrahim Ma-lanta Yusuf, who disclosed this, said the highest revenue generated by the command before now was N54 billion.
Yusuf also said the command’s anti-smuggling efforts yielded results as the command impounded a total of 28 containers falsely declared contraband cargoes, in the last two months.
Items intercepted, according to the customs boss, are Tramadol, Codeine, foreign parboiled rice, pharmaceutical products, among others.
Speaking during a courtesy visit by the Executive members of the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON) to his office in Apapa, last Wednesday, Yusuf said that there were brighter prospects of higher revenue collection by the command.
He noted that despite the lull in international trade and commerce due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the command was able to generate the highest revenue collection in the history of Apapa Customs in March.
The customs boss expressed optimistic that by the time he is done with the ongoing restructuring in the command, more revenue would flow in.
On the recent reports that the Command was frustrating the E-Call Up of trucks put in place by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), he wondered how the command could alter an electronic system that is not in anyway connected with its operations.
He said it was either that the accusers were ignorant of the operations of Customs or were just being mischievous.
Yusuf averred that the E-Call Up system has come to stay, but added that a new system would always have initial teething problems.

By: Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos