The Apapa Port Command of the Nigeria Customs Service announced on Wednesday that it generated a total of ₦1,227,431,323,016.24 in revenue between January and July 2024.
The command also collected ₦201,853,406,964.61 for the month of July this year, marking its highest monthly collection in the history of the Nigeria Customs Service.
Customs Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Babatunde Olomu, who disclosed this on Wednesday, stated his commitment to surpassing existing revenue collection records.
According to the CAC, the revenue collected in the first seven months of 2024 exceeds the total revenue collected for the twelve months of 2023.
He attributed this success to the implementation of the Comptroller General of Customs’ focus on time-release studies to facilitate trade without delay.
This approach, he said, yielded outstanding results, as reflected in the command’s revenue collection.
Expressing confidence in the command’s ability to achieve even better results, Comptroller Olomu said, “I am optimistic about the possibility of surpassing this record as we look forward to exceeding it in the coming months.
For the first seven months of 2024, that is January to July this year, the Apapa Area Command generated a total of ₦1,227,431,323,016.24. This amount is higher than the total revenue collected by the command in 2023, which was ₦1,172,414,793,960.32.”
“In clear terms, our seven-month collection for 2024 exceeds last year’s total twelve-month collection.
It is also important to note the significant contributions from the Tariff and Trade Department, which have greatly contributed to our success thus far.
Our compliance desk, dispute resolution team, Valuation, PCA, CIU, and other units aimed at promoting seamless trade have been reinvigorated with daily, weekly, and monthly evaluations by my office to monitor our progress.”
“We are committed to furthering our efforts in line with the directives and motivating examples of the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR DSM PSC (+).
The Apapa Command handles the highest volume of trade for the NCS, collects the highest revenue, and therefore is expected to meet higher standards from the management of the service and the government,” he added.
Comptroller Olomu also met with stakeholders at the port before the commencement of the nationwide protests to assure them of customs’ availability for work during the period.
This move has further strengthened port users’ confidence. He advised Apapa port users to engage only in legitimate trade and reiterated that the Apapa Command is dedicated to detecting all forms of concealment and minimizing revenue leakage to the barest minimum.