By: Podo Sunday
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| Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), |
The Nigeria Customs Service says it has recorded a total revenue collection of N4.49 trillion between June 2023 and May 2024, a remarkable 74% growth compared to the N2.58 trillion collected during the corresponding period of the previous year.
The Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR, made this known during a press briefing at the Service Headquarters in Abuja on June 19, 2024, to commemorate his first anniversary in office.
According to him, this feat was underpinned by a sustained increase of 70.13% in average monthly revenue collection compared to the previous year. "NCS recorded an average monthly revenue collection of N 343 billion, compared to the N202 billion monthly average."
"Notably, there was a substantial 122.35% rise in revenue collection during the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in the previous year," the CGC stated.
He attributed the gains to various strategic initiatives, including N15 billion recovery by the Revenue Review Performance Recovery exercise, N2.79 billion recovery from the 90-day window for the
regularisation of the documents of uncustomed vehicles, N1.5 billion Recovered from the decongestion of 1,705 overtime containers and 981 vehicles from the port and the deployment of officers to sensitive posts based on merit and capacity.
"It is also worthy to note that on June 13, 2024, NCS recorded a daily all-time high of N58.5 billion in revenue collection," Adeniyi noted.
Speaking on trade facilitation, the customs boss stated that the NCS has made significant progress, which includes the decongestion of ports and the reopening of previously inaccessible access roads.
"Particularly noteworthy is the NCS's recent ranking under the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), which aims to streamline business operations in Nigeria through reforms and policies, He said. "I am delighted to announce that the NCS moved up 33 places, now tied at the top with 4 other MDAs out of the 36 MDAs assessed, with a percentage score of 100%, marking an 81.5% increase. This remarkable improvement is directly attributed to the trade facilitation measures implemented within the past year," Adeniyi emphasised.
The Customs boss further acknowledged that, the designation of a dedicated terminal for exports has yielded significant gains, facilitating the processing of export goods through the Lilypond command.
On his one year in office, the CGC stated that his appointment came during the nascent stage of President Bola Tinubu's administration.
He noted that the service aligned its responsibilities with Mr President's Policy Advisory Documents. (PAD). In line with the mandate of the service, CGC Adeniyi highlighted some of the policy measures implemented by NCS in the past year, including the transition from the Customs and Excise Management Act 2004 to the newly signed Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023.
The Customs strongman outlined that the NCS Act has given rise to the recent transition from the Fast Track 2.0 to the Authorized Economic Operators (AEO) program, where participants benefit from expedited Customs clearance processes, the Advance Ruling system, which aligns NCS operations with global best practices, the introduction of Time Release Study (TRS) to identify bottlenecks in the clearance process and ensure that adequate measures are taken.