Apapa Customs Command Nets N540 Billion From January To July 2023

Apapa Customs Command Nets N540 Billion From January To July 2023

·         Collections Result Of Leakage Prevention, Due Diligence, Others, Says Comptroller, Generates N119b In July  

Revenue takings at the Apapa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) from January to July 2023 amounted to N540,431,401,641.
This is contained in a statement issued by the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the command, Mohammed Auwal, who announced a revenue collection of the stated amount.
A statement issued by the Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs, Mohammed Auwal, disclosed this recently at a farewell session with senior officers of the command, saying that he also stressed the need for compliance as the bedrock of port efficiency.
ACG Mohammed, who until Friday, July 28, 2023, was Customs Area Controller of Apapa Command, lauded the revenue collection as an outcome of leakage prevention, zero compromise for duty evasion, and due diligence in the face of reduced volume of trade.
While thanking the officers and stakeholders for their support, the ACG described the various interventions such as demand notices to recover identified shortfalls in revenue as helpful.
He specifically commended the N119 billion July 2023 collection, which is presently the highest monthly revenue made by the command. Before now, N95b collected in January and August 2022 were the highest monthly collections ever.
The newly promoted ACG thanked the officers, other government agencies, and members of the Apapa port community for their cooperation throughout his time as Area Controller.
According to him, the job of preventing prohibited items such as arms, ammunition, illicit drugs, and others under the import and export prohibition lists from entering or exiting the country through Apapa Port was treated as a collective duty under his watch.
The ACG described inter-agency synergy and intelligence sharing as the first bold step in defeating criminals who seek to use ports for their unlawful activities.
He said: “Compliance is one word that appeals to both government and private sector stakeholders because we are all governed by rules to which we owe a duty to obey. The Apapa Port holds the potential to handle the highest volume of trade in West and Central Africa with the possibility of being a trade hub for seamless cargo movement if importers, agents, and freight forwarders comply by making sincere declarations and avoiding smuggling.”
The former Controller was officially decorated with his new rank of ACG on Monday, July 31, 2023, by the Acting Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi in Abuja.