The unrelenting efforts of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to raise its revenue bar last year were crowned by those of the officers and men of the Apapa Premier Port Command of the service which worked hard to hit the one trillion naira revenue mark in 2022, writes Innocent Chukwu
The year 2022 will for a long time remain indelible in the history of Apapa Area 1 Customs Command. It was in that year that the command generated over one trillion naira into the Federation Account as revenue for that year. The year, 2022 was the year when a single customs command was able to generate a whopping one trillion naira for the government. The command had in 2022 generated a total of one trillion, twenty –two billion, five hundred and thirty million, five hundred and twenty three thousand, six hundred and ninety nine naira, four kobo (N1,022.530,523,699.4).
Indeed, this sum represented almost half of what the entire Nigeria Customs Service generated as total revenue for the year 2022. According to the command’s outgoing Area Controller, Yusuf Mallanta who has been promoted to a new rank of Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) for his sterling performace while he headed the command, the 2022 revenue of Apapa Area 1 Command represents a 16.07 per cent increase from the sum of Eight hundred and seventy billion, three hundred and eighty-eight million, three hundred and fourty thousand, six hundred and fifty naira (N870,388,340,650.65) which the command generated in the year 2021.
Speaking at a press briefing held at the command on Thursday, January 12, 2023, Mallanta who facially radiated enthusiasm for having recorded the significant history, said that the “Feat was made possible because of our officers and men’s resilience in blocking revenue leakages and ensuring that all unpaid declarations and unutilised PAARs have been traced and accounted to the Federal Government Coffers”.
Mallanta who has now joined the customs management team as the ACG ICT, also said that “We have indeed made Apapa command a model port which attracted the commendation of the Secretary General of African Continental Free Trade Area, His Excellency, Wamkele Mene during his visit to the command in June 2022.
“As part of the command’s trade facilitation initiative, officers have been selected, trained and dedicated to address complaints through dispute resolution and ensure transaction within our systems are nomnitored with precision and control”.
On the basis of the foregoing, the Apapa Area 1 Command was able to hit the one trillion naira historical mark for which notable stakeholders have been commending the command. Also, the command recorded export of a total tonnage of 6.4 million metric tonnes worth about N28.2 billion non-oil export in the year 2022.
In the area of anti-smuggling, the command recorded seizure of 157 containers in 2022 with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N14.4billion.
