Tin Can Island Customs Makes  Huge Progress,Breaks Q1 Record With 139% Revenue Surplus .

Tin Can Island Customs Makes  Huge Progress,Breaks Q1 Record With 139% Revenue Surplus .
……….generates N303 billion

Comptroller.Dera Nnadi,Tin Can Island Customs Command Area Controller 

By Frank Odinukaeze

The Tin Can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS has made huge progress  in the quest to meet the Command’s 2024 revenue  target,as it recorded a total revenue collection of ₦303,937,547,265.47) in the first quarter of 2024.

According to a statement on Wednesday,by Superintendent of Customs,Ngozi Okwara,this amount is against ₦126,858,189,231.31 recorded in the same period of 2023.

The breakdown of the revenue collected by the command shows a total of ₦88,430,126,122.72 collected in the month of January 2024 which indicates a 107.9% upscale from the revenue collected for same period of 2023, which was ₦42,536,336,038.11.

In February ₦100,399,354,887.71 was generated with 141.8% higher than the amount collected in the same period in 2023 which was ₦41,518,738,649.09.
While in March, ₦115,108,066,256.20 was realize as against ₦42,803,114,544.11 collected in March 2023; making 163.9% increase.

In the area of Enforcement and anti-Smuggling, Comptroller Dera Nnadi said the Command has not relented in its effort to combat snuggling and all forms of criminalities.

His words,”Customs being the lead Agency at the Ports through it’s Enforcement Unit has coordinated several 100% physical examination under my supervision in collaboration with Critical Stakeholders to ensure that the command is freed of any form of non-compliance in line with the International trade cycle.

” A total of 57 packets of Heroine weighing 56.390kg with a street value of (₦902, 240,000.00); 3612 packets of Colorado Indica weighing 956.772kg with a street value of (₦4,055,400,000.00). All the seized illicit drugs have been handed over to the relevant sister agencies as directed by the service”, Nnadi said.
In the area of Stakeholders engagement and collaboration, the Command has in the past few months hosted different sections of stakeholders’ forum (Shipping Companies; Terminal Operators; Freight Forwarders and Security Agencies etc), physically and virtually on modalities to automate communication channel to minimize revenue loss and boost rules of engagement.

On Time Release Study, TRS, Nnadi said “I have the honour to inform you that irrespective of the challenges observed, the Area Command has not relented on its efforts to ensure that the aim is achieved. The TRS as a Customs Process aims to enhance efficiency and effectiveness within Customs Operations by assessing the time it takes for goods to be released from terminals within the port premises. This will be unveiled with time, yet be assured that there is progress”.

Nnadi said ” In her effort to create a level playing field for importers and stakeholders by decongesting the Ports, the Command encouraged stakeholders’ approach for the establishment of new terminals. Activities have long commenced at the terminals, respectively.

In terms of Export Trade, he said export trade recorded exponential growth both in volume and Free On Board ( FOB) value within the same period under review. “Comparatively, tonnage of goods exported via TCIP increased from 145,906.33 MT in 2023 to 251,679.89 MT in 2024 which represents an increase of 95.3%. Also, there is an over 300% increase in the FOB value of the exports N80,993,580,710 to N287,792,767,415.00 of Q1 2023 and 2024 respectively”.

Some of the Export products from the Command includes essentially agricultural and other allied products, namely; Coca-Butter, Cocoa Beans, Cashew Nuts etc.

“We continue to express our profound appreciation for the support and clear sense of direction from the Comptroller General of Customs, BA Adeniyi MFR and his management team for their relentless and continuous efforts towards strengthening the capacity of the Service and introducing innovative methods to perform its statutory responsibilities in line with international best practices”.Comptroller.Nnadi said.

The statement added that ,”The Area Command will continue to put in more efforts towards better performance. We are optimistic that with the content of digitalization of all Customs processes and procedures based on the modernisation agenda of the Service we will achieve more in our responsibilities”.