By Stephen Ubanna
Babatnde Olomu, a Customs Controller, overseeing the operations at the nation’s Premier port that handles over 60% of the volume of cargo imports into the country appears to have demonstrated to be a practical revenue collection master since his deployment to Customs Command by Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, the Customs Comptroller General.
The Customs Comptroller who believes in team work may have rubbed his practical administrative style on his Deputy Comptrollers, who many believe are instrumental to ensuring that that the right thing are done by the importers with their agents at the port like the DCs Aina, Valuation, Ibrahim Turaki, APM Terminal and Frank Oyeka, overseeing the Apapa port exit gate.
An insider told The Value News appears to be acting out the script of the Apapa Command Area Controller as he looks out for even the minutest details in all import documents submitted to his office for clearance. The source told the online Magazine that the exit gate Deputy Controller who do not see himself as ‘’the boss’’, frequently comes out from his office to feel the purse the agents and expedite action in attending to the documents in his office to facilitate the movement of the trucks in and out of the port.
It was learnt that Bill of Laden suspected to have been undervalued due to too many works coming in at the same time from the agents was said to have been properly scrutinized by the exit gate officers. In most case the exit gate Deputy Comptroller was said to have reached out to the DC. Valuation to rub minds. It was not surprising why some of the agents’ clients had been issued with Demand Notice, DN,that runs into millions of naira. The no nonsense, dc. Oyeka, who looks calm recommends DN, for suspected Bill of Laden, which the guilty importers and their agents pay without lodging any protest or taking their Complaints to the Command disciplinary Committee.
An elated Compt. Olomu, who industry stakeholders had confirmed had succeeded in blocking areas of revenue Leakage at APM T, described as one of the biggest private terminals in the West African sub-region and other bulk cargo terminals under the control of the Command had revealed during a recent press briefing in Lagos, the nation’s Commercial centre, that the Command collected and paid into the Federation Account the sum of N1.87 trn, between January and October, 202, an interval of 10 months based on the records that had been put together by Wale Adenuga, a DC, overseeing the Command’s revenue generation records.
The Customs Comptroller may have shocked man when he disclosed that that the amount collected and paid into the Federation account within 10 months of its operations in this current year of 2024, is 101%, higher than the N931 million generated by the previous Administration of the Command which was said to have been celebrated in Customs circles within the same period in 2023.
The Apapa Command Area Controller may have given the officers a cause to cheer when he averred that the Command revenue collection in the ten months under review had been boosted the October revenue collection of N264.45 billion, which could be said to be the total revenue collection of some Commands in one year.
Described as the highest monthly revenue to be generated by the Command, between January and now, Compt. Olomu, is optimistic that the command’s revenue generation in the remaining two months of the year, that is November and December, 2024, would be much higher than the October collection.
This is because of the anticipated increase in the volume of cargo traffic in the port because of the Christmas season. This may have informed why he has told those that cares to listen that the Command , notwithsanding the drop in the volume of cargoes in to the nation’s seaport due to the country’s volatile exchange rate that the Command will meet and even surpass the Customs Headquarters target of N2.2 trn, from the N5.1 trn revenue target set for the service by the Federal Government.
There is no gainsaying the fact that all officers of the Command both at the Apapa office, APM terminal and all other bonded terminals outside the port superintended by the Command are working round the clock to ensure that the revenue target set for the Command was not only achieved but a new record of yearly revenue collection set in the Command.
The good news about the Apapa Command since May 2024, that Comptroller assumed office, was the fact that the Command has keyed into trade facilitation tools like the Authorised Economic Operators and Advanced Ruling, essentially ‘’to ensure seamless movement of import cargoes from the Asian countries of China, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the North American country of the United States, US, and other Turkey European countries.
This is in addition to the export of tmanufactured goods such as wrought aluminium alloys, cathodes and section of cathodes and refined lead while the Agricul tural products that was said to have been exported through the premier under the guidance of the Apapa Command to the country’s trading partners globally includes cocoa beans, sesamum seeds, cashew nuts, desiccated coconuts, ginger, frozen shrimps and prawns, natural cocoa butter ,palm nuts and kernels. This is I addition to other solid and aw material goods in which billions of naira was said to have been raked in for the government.
Recall that in the first of this 2024, fiscal year, the Apapa Command through the measures that was said to have been put place by Compt. Olomu to encourage Nigerian exporters to patronize the port in their business was said to have recorded 25% increase in non-oil export cargoes to Asia, Europe , North and South American countries including the United Kingdom, UK, compared to the same period in 2023.
The Apapa Area Command Area Controller , may have set a revenue record that the likes of Comptrollers Dera Nnandi, of Tincan Island Command, Ben Nkem Oramalugo, of Oyo/Osun Commands and others have tried to emulate.
In spite of the hardline position of Compt.Nnandi, in dealing with the importers with their agents at the Tincan Island which may have forced many of them to relocate to Apapa to take delivery of their cargoes and Port Multi-services lTerminal Limited, PTML, to take delivery , of their vehicles, the Command has blazed the trail of revenue generation as it had collected and paid into the Federation account the whooping amount of N1 trn between January, 2024 and October 25, 2024, to be in the class of Compt. Olomu.
Note that Compt.Oramalugo, of the Oyo /Osun Command who do not have established avenue of making good revenue for the service like the Commands overseeing the nation’s major seaports at Lagos, and the south easern ports or the Lekki Free Trade Zone Command in Lagos or the Ogun 11, Command , Abeokuta, which had several excise factories to collect excise factories for the government may have used his wealth of knowledge and administrative skill to do the unexpected: improving the Command’s monthly revenue generation by ensuring that the excise pay their excise dutie as at when due without waiting to be chased around in the two south western states of Oyo and Osun, , described as Commendable by stakeholders.
In the month of October alone, the Oyo/Osun Command under the close watch of the Anambara state born Custom Comptroller was said to have collected N56,66,828,85.00 for the government which the Customs Area Controller had said was 7.85% higher than the month of September , 2024.
He had confirmed that much of the Command’s revenue in the month of October, 2024, had come from ultimate production activities by the excise factories operating in the two south western state under its its urisdiction as officers deployed to the factories were said to have ensure proper documentation and calculation of the amount paid by the factories per Kilogram of products manufactured on a daily basis to avoid any revenue leakages or playing into the hands of Compt. Oramalugo, who is ready to close don any ffactory found wanting.
Given the impressive revenue performance of the trio of Comptrollers Olomu, Nnadi and Oramalugo, in their respective Commands in the month of October 2024, alone may throw them up as senior officers to watch in the upcoming Comptroller General’s Conference at Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
