Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Nigeria Customs Service says it generated an unprecedented revenue sum of N301billion between January and December 2023, in Onne Seaport, Rivers State.
The Customs Area Comptroller, Port Harcourt Area II Command, Onne port, Comptroller Baba Imam, who disclosed this at an event to mark the Command’s end of the year, said the generated revenue sum represents 90 percent of its targeted revenue for 2023.
According to Imam, the Command had set the sum of N336 billion as targeted revenue for 2023, adding that in July 2023 alone, the Command raked the sum of N38billion.
He explained that the functions of the Nigerian Customs Service were chiefly about revenue collection and generation, suppression of smuggling and the implementation of government fiscal policies.
He said, “In the area of revenue, the Command has recorded about N310 billion as of this moment. The Command did not only meet up with its revenue target or beat last year’s revenue but has remarkably increased over N40 billion in addition to what was realized last year.
“Additionally, I would like to state here that, in July 2023 the Command had a total revenue of N38billion, which is an unprecedented record in the history of this Command, just for a month.
“Hitherto, the command was having to record only about N27billion as the highest revenue that was generated within a month. As I earlier said, our revenue target for the year is about N336billion and as I speak, we have been able to get about 90percent of our revenue target I want to assure you people that we are resolute and committed to ensuring that we meet up with our revenue target before the end of the year.”
The Onne Customs boss also disclosed that the Command has seized about 39 containers within the period under review, in a bid to curb smuggling and ensure importers confirm with the federal government’s import and export guidelines.
Amongst the items imported which contravened import and export guidelines, the comptroller mentioned second-hand clothing, used tires, concealed hard drugs and other substances, pistols and ammunition which were handed over to the relevant security agencies.
