Apapa Customs processes 160 million tonnes of export cargo, collects N790.6 billion

Comptroller Malanta

The Apapa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service says it processed 160 million tonnes of export cargo worth N181 billion from January to September 2022 at Apapa Port, Lagos.

The N181 billion export receipt included in the N790, 630,406, 980.96 revenue collected by the command in the period with a promise by its Controller, Comptroller Yusuf Malanta Ibrahim, that the Command is poised to collect N1.1 trillion revenue into the coffers of the Federation by the end of 2022.

Comptroller Yusuf Malanta Ibrahim disclosed this today while addressing the press on the activities of the Command within the period at Apapa, Lagos.

The Controller said “In the period under review, the command has collected revenue to the tune of Seven hundred and ninety billion, Six hundred and thirty million, Four hundred and six thousand, Nine hundred and eighty naira, Ninety-six kobo (N790,630,406,980.96). This shows an exponential improvement of N181.5billion as against N609 billion naira collected in the corresponding months of the year 2022, representing 29.8% increment.”

Controller Ibrahim said that the remarkable achievement was made possible because of our officers’ tireless commitment to ensure that all revenue leakages are being mitigated, as well as sustaining the level of compliance by the importers/stakeholders in the clearance value chain.

In the area of anti-smuggling, Comptroller Ibrahim has this to say “anti-smuggling activities have been one of the command’s focal points, especially with the activities of some unrepentant traders who are always looking for avenues to undermine our system. The command has fortified its forensic manifest management to monitor and detect fraudulent transaction through audit trial to ensure that illicit trade are being tracked before the declarations are lodged.

“Furthermore, the enforcement unit has been reinforced through improved collaboration and sharing of credible intelligence with relevant government agencies to suppress smuggling activities to its barest minimum. For the period under review, the command recorded one hundred and forty-five (145) seizures of various items with a duty paid value (DPV) of Twelve billion, four hundred and ninety-six million, six hundred and seventy-two thousand, one hundred and twenty-two naira (N12,496,672, 122.00).

“These seized items include unregistered medicaments such as tramadol and codeine, processed/unprocessed wood, used clothing, ladies men’s footwear, foreign parboiled rice, tomato paste, vegetable oil and other sundry items that falls under import/export prohibition list.

“These importations are in clear breach of sections 46 and 47 of Customs and Excise Management Act, CEMA CAP C45 LFN 2004.”

He said the command is ready to assist importers and other port users in facilitating trade. “Let me reemphasize that Apapa Command is continuously ready to assist in facilitating legitimate trade and ensuring that all forms of smuggling activities through false declaration on import/export done in defiance to extant trade guidelines will be detected through our layers of control mechanism.

“I want to crave the indulgence of our esteemed stakeholders to join hands with the command and ensure that items that are on the import/export prohibition list are strictly adhered to, and urge them to embrace the emerging realities of customs examination through non-intrusive inspection (NII) regime. The non-intrusive inspection regime is geared towards increasing volume of cargo inspection, protection of national security, saving cost/clearing time, storing reliable data and images for reference purposes, and reducing human contact in the examination of containerized cargo.”

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