…records highest monthly collection of N119b in July 2023
The Nigeria Customs Service, Apapa Area Command, has collected a total of N540,431,401,641 as revenue from January to July 2023
In a statement released by the Public Relations Officer, CSC Abubakar Usman.
The Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs, Mohammed Auwal, disclosed this at a farewell session with senior officers of the command and also sued for compliance as the bedrock of port efficiency.
He said 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 trade volume.
According to the statement, the assistant Comptroller General thanked Officers and Stakeholders for their support and described the various interventions, such as Demand Notices to recover identified shortfalls in revenue, as helpful.
He specifically commended the N119,049,235,263 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 collection.
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, 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.”
“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”.
ACG Mohammed was officially decorated with his rank on Monday, July 31 2023, by the Ag. Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR in Abuja.