Apapa Customs records export worth N58 million in seven months

The Apapa Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has said it exported a total of 343, 471.80 tonnes of agricultural produces and mineral resources between January and July 2018,saying that the Free On Board (FOB) was valued N57,666,837,493.90 within the period under review.

Outgoing Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Jubrin Musa disclosed the figure on Thursday during a handing over ceremony in Lagos.

Comptroller Musa affirmed that this was in line with the federal government effort at diversifying the Nigerian economy through encouragement of non-oil export.

The Customs boss further assured maximum cooperation and optimum trade facilitation, even as it appeals for increased level of wilful compliance to the extant law guiding the export business.

He said the command over the year has continue to engage world best traditional tools of communication to acquaint stakeholders with activities, adding that this has been an eventful and activity- laden 7 months.

While highlighting total revenue collected within the period under review, the outgoing controller reiterated that a whooping N210,260,123,203.7 was recorded by the flagship command adding that the figure represent 84.6% collection of the seven months target.

Despite the prevailing economic conditions as evidenced by low cargo throughput, the Comptroller added that the “The significance of this unrivalled attainment will be appreciated when placed at par with the command’s collection in the preceding year of 2017 which was N196,701,774,277.7.”

He stressed that the foregoing analysis of the revenue collection of over 210 billion naira was more than what it collected in the preceding year by N13,558,343,926 only, this he said, shows an increase of 6.9% over the year 2017.

According to him, many stakeholders engagement in meeting workshops/trainings and sensitization were held in the command adding that the command also received high level delegation from different agencies of government ,national of foreign countries and members of different strategic private committees.

Recall that the Customs management set aside a monthly revenue target of N35,516,068,984.95 for the flagship command of the service.

The Comptroller, however, reaffirmed that the command has put in place different strategies for more efficient and seamless cargo clearance, thus such reinvigorated strategies which include thorough documentation checks and 100% physical examination of cargoes.

Highlight of the event was the handing over ceremony, when the incoming Area Command Controller, Comptroller Abubakar Bashir who was redeployed from Port Harcourt 2, Area Command called on stakeholders to collaborate with the service and the command in particular to boost to revenue collection and trade facilitation.