The Tincan Island Port Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) highlights shared values amongst officers and men in its rebranding agenda which helped the command to achieve sterling results in all areas of operation 2022
By Innocent Ckukwu
All officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Area Command at the Tincan Island Port, Lagos, had, last January, beaten their chest with pride in self-appreciation of uncommon success the command achieved in different areas of its operations, in the year 2022. The extra ordinary performance the command achieved in 2022 is in line with the rebranding agenda of the command’s Area Controller (CAC), Comptroller AAS Oloyede.
The rebranding of the Tincan Island port being championed by Comptroller Oloyede since last year, found expressing in some values which the CAC said were adopted by the command and shared by all officers and men which resulted in numerous feats in the areas of revenue generation and collection, facilitation of import and export trades, enforcement of anti-smuggling laws, implementation of the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) Valuation system and the automation of the 846 procedure.
These values include the vision of Comptroller Oloyede to reposition the port for maximum benefit for the citizens, renewed enthusiasm on the part of officers and men, discipline, and professionalism. Armed with these values, Comptroller Oloyede hinted that the Tincan Island Port Customs Command was able to achieve a 16.33 percent increase in its revenue collection in 2022 when compared with the revenue collection in the year 2021.
In 2022, Comptroller Oloyede said that the total revenue of N574.3 billion was collected by the command, while the revenue collection of 2021 was N493.7 billion. In essence, the command in 2022 surpassed its 2021 revenue with a huge amount of N80.6 billion.
Stressing the values that helped the command under his watch to achieve such outstanding performance, Comptroller Oloyede said, “It is expedient to call your remembrance my expressed vision of a renewed enthusiasm in the areas of discipline, professionalism, trade facilitation and import, export and transit trade and revenue drive that was free from exploitation and intimidation”.
The Tincan Port Customs CAC revealed these on Friday, January 27, 2023 at a media briefing to showcase the command’s performances in the year 2022. He added, “Hitherto, the Tincan Island Command ended the year, January to December 2022 with modest achievements in the areas of revenue and anti-smuggling amongst others”.
Highlighting the measures the command adopted to attain the huge revenue collection, the CAC also said, “This feat could be attributed to the constant rejiging of the existing measures geared towards sustaining the command’s revenue profile, as well as the utilization of some disruptive strategic measures such as periodic capacity building, reshuffling and redeployment of officers using the (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) SWOT analysis, implementation of the VIN Valuation, automation of the 846 procedure, reintroduction of the NIIT (Non–Intrusive Inspection Technology) after the deployment of the NIIT equipment to the command, proper profiling, system audit, proper recheck or examination and detailed but clearing imputed Inspection Act”.
Comptroller Oloyede further hinted that efforts of sister agencies which collaborated with the command in the areas of timely intelligence sharing and utilization and voluntary compliance with government extant laws by the business community, stakeholders’ engagement, were all necessary factors that led to the high revenue accrued to the Federation Account via the command.
In its export trade, the Tincan Port Customs boss disclosed that the Free On Board (FOB) exports of the command rose to tune of $589,969,648 which he said was an equivalent of N242,365,322,333. The export feat of 2022 represents an increase of 34.4 percent in comparison with the FOB exports of 2021 achieved by the command for that year. But the Area Controller added that despite the increased export yield in 2022, there was a decrease in expert tonnage of 2022 from the 1,723,986.8 in 2021 to 336,179.5
Exports that passed through the Tincan Island Port in 2022 included cocoa beans, insecticides, dried ginger, empty bottles, soya beans, cashew nuts, cigarettes, rubber, cocoa butter, frozen shrimps, copper ingots, sesame seeds, as well as other manufactured items such as legend stout which became the least in quantity of exports the command handled in 2022. But the biggest export in quantity for the year under review was cocoa beans.
While commending the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) for its collaboration in the facilitation of seamless clearing processes of these items via the command in 2022, the CAC also noted that there is a brighter future for Nigeria’s export trade through Tincan Island Port in line with the NCS export Standard Operating System (SOP).
Declarations of import and export items that passed through the Tincan Island Port in 2022 were thoroughly supervised by officers in order to sniff out offending items and detect improper declarations. The increased surveillance on these declarations helped the command to record 38 different seizures in 2022. Some of the significant seizures were Colorado variant of cannabis sativa that weighed 345.1kgs contained in 763 packs which street value amounted to N714.6 million, five 40-foot containers of used tyres with a content of 5,060 pieces, 1,150 bales of second-hand clothings, 1,190 cartons of potassium bromate with each carton containing 20 pieces with baking powder, 11,392 cartons of armcol chloroquine phosphate injection of 322.5mg in 5ml intravenous (IV) and intramuscular (IM) bottles. Each carton contained 1,200 bottles of the illicit anti-malarial injections.
The command in 2022 also seized 206,000 pieces of machetes, 1,383 cartons of cigarettes containing 50 rolls in each carton, 650 cartons of new ladies shoes with each carton containing 50 pieces of shoes, 2,666 pieces of inverter batteries carried in 36 pallets, 1980 cartons of assorted non-alcoholic beverages and 1,048 cartons of Tilda Basmatic rice.
Yet, there were other seizures such as 2,594 pieces of ammunition and 20 pieces of arms comprising one pistol of 611090 model JCO 40mm, one used Co2 air pistol with accessories caliber 117, one marksman repeater pistol, six mace pepper gun and other 10 suspected arms of various types. All of these seizures had a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of over ₦1.8billion.
The CAC said there was an increase in seizures his command made in 2022 when compared with the 27 seizures recorded in 2021 with DPV of ₦607,267,617. The number of seizures increased by 11 with the difference in DPV amounting to over ₦1.2 billion. The seizures were forfeited to the Federal Government as provided in Section 46 and 161 of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA). A number of 60 suspects were also arrested in connection with the seizures. These were granted administrative bail, while eight cases relating to the seizures are pending at the court.
Comptroller Oloyede explained that the VIN Valuation system simplified and facilitated easy clearing processes for legitimately imported vehicles by providing a uniform, fair, neutral value across board on vehicles with identical brands, model and year of manufacture in line with the provisions of Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1994. But he said the 846 automated procedure allowed declarants to submit, monitor and track the status of their applications online and in real time. According to the CAC, the 846 scheme was initially abused and temporarily suspended following the arrest of the abusers, but the 846 scheme would soon be replicated in other commands of the NCS.
