Amid Nigeria’s dwindling volume of international trade occasioned by the drastic reduction in the value of naira to dollar, the Apapa Premier Port Customs Command Lagos generates over one trillion naira in the first half of 2024
By Innocent Chukwu
It was predicted by many pundits, before his coming, that Dr. Babatunde Olomu, the current Customs Area Controller(CAC) of Apapa Area 1 Command Lagos, would quadruple the revenue generation of the Command if he was given the opportunity to serve in that capacity. Comptroller Olomu’s leadership of the Apapa Premier Port Customs Command is akin to a dream come true: the prediction of the pundits has materialized.
At the close of business activities in the Premier Port for the first half of the year 2024 on Friday, June 28, the Apapa Area 1 Customs Command had generated over one trillion naira into the Federation Account, Comptroller Olomu revealed. According to the CAC, the Command recorded a landmark collection of precisely N1,023,663,842,255.63 within the first six months of 2024.
At a media briefing held at the Command’s headquarters in Apapa Lagos, Comptroller Olomu said that the historic revenue generated by the Command he heads had an increase of 143 percent when compared with the amount of revenue the Command generated in the first six months of 2023. Between January and June 2023, the Apapa Port Customs Command generated only a little above N421.382 billion. Thus, the N1.023 trillion recorded in the first half of 2024 is about two and a half times higher than the revenue of the corresponding period in 2023.
This revenue record remains historic for the fact that such percentage increase had never been achieved in the history of the Command’s revenue generation.
Comptroller Olomu came to the Command as its CAC last May and had worked tirelessly to raise the revenue record to all time high by dragging the daily collection from N13 billion he met it to as high as N18 billion. The CAC at the event reveled a revenue generation secret that might not have been available to his predecessors, or if it was, they might not have deployed the capacity of the secret to its full use.
For, according to Comptroller Olomu, “Whereas this collection is coming despite a sharp reduction in the volume of trade, it is necessary to note that extra measures have been put in place to prevent losses of government revenue”. Comptroller Olomu’s “extra measures” magic lies in the adoption of a “Revenue Recovery Committee” which he set up upon his resumption as the CAC, and staffed the Committee with the best brain officers and the most disciplined revenue generation officers whose penchant for blocking revenue leakages knows no bounds. These seasoned officers, Olomu disclosed, swung into action to discover hidden revenues that might not have been collected without thorough scrutiny.
“Upon taking over as Area Controller of Apapa, I set up a Revenue Recovery Committee comprising of seasoned and dedicated officers with a mandate to carry out more detailed look into areas of leakages, especially in bonded terminals”, the CAC hinted.
On trade facilitation, Olomu also said there is a team of dedicated officers whose task is to promptly address all complaints and disputes arising from the clearing processes in record time, adding that “We are applying a blend of intelligence with Community Relations for better awareness of our operating environment to achieve greater trade facilitation and fight criminality.
“I have a team of dedicated officers charged with the responsibility of addressing all complaints or disputes within record time before escalation to my office for prompt action.
“I don’t run an open door policy because for me, there is literally no door at all if you want to access my office. My office is open for everyone to discuss anything that will facilitate legitimate trade and promote government interest at all times, including receiving information on suspected smuggling activities”.
Within the last six months under review, Olomu disclosed that 11 containers of prohibited items were intercepted by the Command. These included expired and unregistered pharmaceuticals, foot wears, used clothing, armoured cables, frozen poultry products among others which Duty Paid Value (DPV) amounted to N424.1 million which is far less than the DPV of seizures of January to June 2023, which was N1.4 billion.
