By Stephen Ubanna
The Nigerian Customs service, NCS, under the close watch of Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, appears to have mobilized his Management Team and the Command Area Controllers to meet the Federal Government approved N6.58 trillion revenue target set for the service this2025, fiscal year as against the N12 trillion proposed for the service by the National Assembly. CGC. Adeniyi may have know that e cannot afford to fail that he had introduced the B’Odogwu system whch is an indigenous technology to replace the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System, NICIS, which was a foreign technology to manage the country trade processes, particular, for imports and exports activities.
A s a prelude to meeting the service N6.58 trn , revenue target, the Customs Management Team were said to have set targets to the various Command with the Apapa Command, getting the highest allocation because of the volume cargoes that passes through the premier port on a daily basis.
The Apapa Command revenue target, was said to have been quickly followed by Tin-can Island Command under the close watch of Compt. Frank Okechukwu Onyeka while that of Port Harcourt Area II, Onne, Port Multi-services, PTML, Command and others follow in that order.
The various Customs Area Controllers, across the six -geopolitical regions of the Federation were said to have set up strategies to meet their revenue targets to win the heart of the Customs Comptroller who is under pressure from Wale Edun, minister of Finance and Coordinating minister of the Economy and who incidentally is the Chaman of the Customs Board to deliver on his mandate as it did in 2024.
The duo of Comptrollers Olomu and Onyeka, may have set the stage for others to follow, to excel in their monthly collections. This is evident going by their first quarter revenue collections which was said to have been presented before the House Committee members on Customs and Excise, under the Chairmanship of Hon. Leke Abejide, who were said to be in the Commands to carry out their oversight functions.
Compt. Onyeka, may have prepared such visits as he was said from the on set to have been on the neck of the officers to ensure that the Command’s 2025 revenue target of N1.524 trillion set by the Headquarters and even surpassed. Determined to achieve the goal, he was said to have stated clearly that the revenue that would collected in the first quarter of the 2025, fiscal year will give an insight to how the Command will perform in its 2025, revenue collections.
He was said to have addressed some of the inherited challenges described by operators as posing a threat to the Command’s revenue generation.
An insider had had confirmed that within the first two months in office he had ‘’resolved the issue of multiple alerts’’ which had been a major problem at the Tin-can Island port ostensibly ‘’to streamline operations and enhance trade facilitation’’.
In achieving the goal, the Customs Comptroller who had seen it all at the various Commands he had worked as a member of the the Management team, including Apapa Command, where he was given the free hand to do achieve, meaning less supervision, he had delivered.
In cancelling the multiple alerts, he was said to have brought together the Representatives of the various Federal Government agencies approved to operate at the port, terminal operators, the Leadership of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, National Association of Government Approved Feight Forwarders, National Councils of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, NCMDLCA, Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria, and AAPFFLON, including importers, to discuss the vexed issue and settle it once and for all. He got it right.
Speaking like an Army General in a war front, Compt. Onyeka, who was said addressed the key operational bottlenecks hindering trade facilitation in the port was said to have made the attendees at the meeting which included members of the Management team and other top officers holding strategic positions in the Command as well of his plans to a stop the issue of multiplicity of alerts which operators had repeatedly complained about ‘’hinders cargo clearance at the port and in turn affects the Command revenue generation .
He may have gladdened the heart of the importers with the agents when he stated that in moving the Command forward to meet it revenue expectation ‘’ alerts’’, on suspected Containerized cargoes which had contravened the government fiscal policy will only ‘’be issued by Legitimate unis of the Command such as ‘’the Valuation and Customs Intelligence Unit, CIU, based strictly on intelligence and with direct approval from the CAC’s office’’.
He may have clipped the wings of the Enforcement Unit, officers, who were said to have abused the opportunity of the issuance of alerts believed to have been used to settle scores with agencies which could not do their biddings. The Tin can Island Area Controller was said to have sounded it loud and clear that the Command’s Enforcement Uni, have no reason whatsoever to issue alerts.
He has his reason for taking the bold initiative ‘’to ensure seamless operations where importers with their agents who make correct declarations pay correct duties and perform necessary examinations take delivery of the cargoes without unnecessary delays at the exit gate.
He was said to have introduced one of the policies he had initiated as the officer in charge of the Apapa exit gate for importers with their agents to ‘’ video the Examination of their cargoes at the terminals and properly approved by the examination officers and approved for release.
Given that the importers with their agents have cued into the new policy at the port, there have not been any undue delays of released cargoes at the Tin-can Island exit gate in the recent time.
Traders who were said to have complied with the new rule are now taking delivery of their goods at the port with ease. That much was confirmed by the Customs Comptroller who had said that ‘’there is a high level of compliance at the port which had robbed off on the Command’s monthly revenue collections as shown in the first quarter of the year 2025.
The Tin-can Island Area Controller, was said to have told have the House Committee on Customs and Excise who were in the Command as part of their’’ oversight function’’ and the League of Maritime Editors, LOME, during an interactive session on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, that the Command had collected the total sum of N347,,935,672,475.5, in the first three months of the year, 2025, precisely between January 1st, 2025 – March 31, 2025, which was said to have been paid into the Federation Account.
The Tin can Area Controller, who may believes in a’’ zero tolerance for revenue Leakage’’ was said to have addressed the issue of clearance of ‘’Transire goods’’ usually transferred to the bonded terminal at the instance of the importer with the agent.
The Customs Comptroller was said to have stopped the rot as he was said to made clear to those that cares to listen stated that all ‘’transire’’ containers must be examined and released at the mother port. It was a bad news to the bonded ware house operators who are used to striking deals with the transire cargo owners in advance to transfer it to their terminal where they will be given good services.
There is no gain saying the fact that the government may have been losing billions of naira through a source of revenue leakage at the ports. Indeed, with the blockage of the various revenue leakages at the Tin-can Island port, the Command had collected N116.4 billion from the volume of imports through the port in the month of January while the N97 billion was collected in February and N128 billion in the month of March, described as the highest to be collected by any former Area Controller Comptroller of the Command over the last 10 years. With the cumulative revenue collection in between January and March, 2025, it shows a difference of N44,144,293,001.87, over the amount that was said to have been collected within the same period in 2024.
Not withstanding the impressive performance of the Tin-can Island Command in the areas of revenue collections from imports, Compt. Onyeka;s major worry was the attack on barges loaded with Containers being transferred to bonded terminals within Lagos suspected pirates and sea robbers. This may have informed why he has read the riot act to the barge operators to stop loading at the port by 6pm.
This is where Dayo Mobereola, Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, which oversees the United States, US, $195 million, security equipment, that was procured by former Muhammadu Buhari, for the Deep Blue Project had before his exit from office to step in to address the problem.
It would be recalled that the Buhari had procured 16 Amphibious Vehicles, for Coastal patrols, 17 Interception Boats, Two Special Mission Vessels, Two Special Mission Aircrafts, Three Helicopters for Surveillance of Nigerian Exclusive Economic Zone, EEZ, and four Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, popular Drones, which were said to have deployed into Nigerian waters and the Gulf of Guines for operations.
. The water maritime security equipment are operated and maintained by the Nigerian Navy under the close watch of Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogallah while the air equipment are operated and maintained by the Nigeria AirForce.
Enough on the Tin-can Island operational reports in the first quarter of 2025, we turn to Apapa Command. Signs that the Apapa Command would keep to its record as the Best in Trade Facilitation at the nation’s seaports and revenue collection for the Nigerian Government in 2024, may have informed why it has put all necessary strategies to ensure that it sustains the track records.
The Apapa Command Area Controller, Compt. Olomu, was said to have told the visiting House Committee on Customs and Excise like his Counterpart at Tin-can Island Command, that between January and March, 2025, the Command had collected as import duties for the government a total sum of N753.8 billion, which he had said was about N205 billion or 54%, higher than the N489 billion collected within the same period in 2024 , Signs that the Command would do exceedingly well in its revenue collection this year emerged when it collected over N151 billion, in the month of January, 2025, despite the low volume of cargo imports as importers were said to have adopted a ‘’wait and see attitude’’ to he implementation of the 2025, fiscal policy before placing their orders overseas.
The situation was not different from what is happening at the Lagos Trade Free Zone, LFTZ, Command, where Compt. Oarewanju .A.Olumoh, had told the House Committee on Customs that it had collected and paid into the Federal government coffers the sum of N113 billion in the first quarter of 2025.
He had said that revenue was collected the Lagos, Lekki, Dangote, Alaro, and Eko Atlantic Free Trade Zones among others, which are designed to facilitate importation of goods without immediate payment of duties, aimed at attracting foreign investment and driving industrialization.
