Over the past one year, the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, has quietly been undergoing radical changes, pushing close to the perfect picture of the Customs needed for the actualisation of the economic reform visions of the President Ahmed Bola Tinubu administration.
In June 2023, Tinubu appointed Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, a former Spokesman of the Customs, as the new Comptroller General, CGC. He immediately keyed the Service into the Policy Advisory Document of the administration.
After series of internal repositioning, boosting staff welfare and morale, strengthening links with international organs to promote best practices and fostering a merit-based sense of geopolitical equity in the posting of commanding officers, the Service set up the Revenue Review Performance Recovery Team, RRPRT, which has helped shore up the revenue profile of the Federal Government to new heights.
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The resuscitation of the Comptroller-General of Customs Conference in December last year and implementation of the Lagos-Continental Declaration have strengthened synergies within the Service and enhanced working relationships with stakeholders, minimising the cat-and-mouse syndrome.
Completion of the two working engagements with the Customs of Benin Republic is effectively addressing the gaps hitherto exploited by smugglers. Also, close collaboration with the Federal Roads Safety Corps, FRSC, has resulted in more efficient handling of smuggled vehicles.
Before the reforms under this administration, the Customs had lagged in the efficiency scale of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC. For instance, the Service Default Approval for 2020 and 2022 was 28th out of 37 Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs. However, in 2023, the Service’s performance jumped to 90.4 per cent, placing overall sixth, with clear pathways ahead towards even better results. The dedication of Lilypond Port as export terminal has also greatly boosted the processing of exports.
This has reflected in the core performance of the Service in terms of revenue generation. In 2023, the Customs’ revenue performance rose 21.4 per cent to N3.2 trillion from N2.6 trillion in the preceding year, despite 18.62 per cent transactions reduction. Already, Customs has recorded 122.35 per cent revenue rise in the first quarter of 2024, and also the highest ever monthly revenue of over N506 billion in March 2024.
NCS Spokesman, Abdullahi Maiwada, disclosed that the newly-adopted Unified Customs Management System, UCMS, can ensure the scanning of 200 containers per hour, thus massively hastening the clearance of goods.
The Service has also ramped up its petroleum products smuggling surveillance, netting seizures of about three million litres of PMS from smugglers so far this year. In addition, about N4.1 billion worth of illicit drugs have been seized in Tin Can Command alone this year.
We hope that the Service’s planned launching of the Authorised Economic Operators, AEO, programme will meet the objective of expediting Customs clearance processes, making our Customs more competitive internationally, greatly boosting revenue and helping improve its corporate reputation.
Nigerian Customs must also greatly pursue the use of technology and strive towards making Nigeria the hub of trade in the West and Central Arican regions.
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