The Customs Area Controller in charge of the Apapa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service; Mr. Charles Edike has said that the command is witnessing an upsurge in revenue collection from N200million to a whooping N2billion on daily basis.
Edike who was speaking at an event in Apapa, Lagos yesterday said that the command had in September 2014 alone collected an unprecedented N30billion as revenue.
The Customs Area Controller in charge of the Apapa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service; Mr. Charles Edike has said that the command is witnessing an upsurge in revenue collection from N200million to a whooping N2billion on daily basis.
Edike who was speaking at an event in Apapa, Lagos yesterday said that the command had in September 2014 alone collected an unprecedented N30billion as revenue.
Apart from this, the customs boss said that the command has successfully stemmed more than 40,000 containers to Kano and Kaduna, as well as Lillypond container terminal and the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal (KLT), both in Apapa, Lagos.
He attributed the successes recorded at the command to the efforts of the Comptroller General of the service, Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi, at ensuring that trade is facilitated at the Nigerian ports.
Edike said that the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) by the customs has equally led to increase in revenue at the command.
"Today, PAAR is on auto pilot, if you go to a proactive bank, it will not take you up to four hours to get your PAAR. The officers at the ruling centres are now under-utilized"
"The revenue to government has also changed, before now, at Apapa port we were making N200million in a day, but now we are into N1billion plus, sometimes N2billion in a day, and last month, Apapa got N30.5billion" he said.
Edike said that this is unprecedented in the history of the command and it is due to diligent planning by the Customs Comptroller General.
Apart from these, the Controller recalled that last year, the Lilly pond Terminal was dull and the concessionaire had wanted to close down operations. He however added that, the Customs CG directed that the command should keep it busy, which it has been doing by transferring containers to the terminals.
"At the close of work last year, we had evacuated over 40,000 containers to Lillypond, Kaduna, Kano, KLT, all of this is to make things easier and facilitate trade which we stand for"
"This year, we have also transferred over 40,000 containers out of Apapa port, we are doing this so that there will be less tension, less pressure on importers, agents and even the shippers", he stressed.
Edike said that if the containers had remained at the Apapa port, it would lead to tension and it would also warrant the use of sharp practices to move them out of the port.
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