Apapa Customs Rakes in an Outstanding N201b in July 2024

... We are Poised to Break More Records - Comptroller Olomu

Kathy Kyari

Between January and July 2024, the Apapa Port Command of the Nigeria Customs Service generated N1,227,431,323,016.24 in revenue.

The command also collected N201,853,406,964.61 in July of this year, which is the largest monthly collection in Nigeria Customs Service history.

This was reported in a statement published on Wednesday by the Command's Public Relations Officer, CSC Abubakar Usman.

The Customs Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Babatunde Olomu, said he is determined to surpass the present revenue collection records.

According to the CAC, the collected income for seven months of 2024 is larger than the total revenue gathered for the year of 2023.

He attributed his success to his implementation of the Comptroller General of Customs' time release study, which aimed to enable trade without delay. According to him, this approach resulted in great outcomes, as seen by the command's revenue collections.

Expressing confidence in the Command's ability to do better, Comptroller Olomu said, "I am optimistic about the possibility of beating this record as we look forward to surpassing it in months to come

"For the first seven months of 2024, that is January to July this year, the Apapa Area Command generated a total of N1,227,431,323,016.24.

What has been generated so far for seven months is above the total collected revenue by the command in 2023, which was N1,172,414,793,960.32.

"In clear terms, our 2024 seven months collection is above last year's twelve months total collection. Worthy of note is the interventions from the Tariff and Trade Department, which has contributed immensely to the successes achieved 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 oversee the progress we are making.”

"We are committed to doing more in line with the directives and motivating examples of the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi.”

“Apapa Command handles the highest volume of trade for the NCS, collects the highest revenue, and therefore is saddled with a higher degree of expectation from the management of the service and the government, " he said.

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, a move that has further strengthened port users' confidence

He further advised Apapa port users to embrace only legitimate trade and restated that Apapa command is more alive to its responsibilities to detect all forms of concealment and plug any avenue for revenue leakage to the barest minimum.