The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has exceeded its revenue generation by 25.2 per cent from N3.21 generated in the whole of 2023 to N4.29 trillion between January and September 2024.
The service noted that the year – on – year improvement on import duty collection showed a marked improvement by the measures put in place by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and commercial banks in the adoption of digital infrastructure for the customs processes.
The Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed this at the weekend, noting that the annual revenue target for the service in the year 2024 was about N5.3 trillion out of which Customs had collected N4.29 trillion with three months left to conclude the year.
Comparing the amount collected in the current year with that of year 2023 at a workshop organised by the Finance and Business Online Publishers (FiBOP) titled: “The strategic umportance of digital infrastructure in import duty collection and accountability,” Adeniyi, who was represented at the workshop by the Customs Area Controller of the Tincan Island Port Command of the Service, Comptroller Dera Nnadi, recalled that NCS collected a total sum of N3.21 trillion.
He explained: “What this means is that we have already surpassed our 2023 collection by over N1 trillion even though the year has not yet ended.
This will enable you to understand the enormity of the progress that we have made leveraging on digital technology. “Let me also try to relate this to our 2022 revenue.
The Service was able to collect N2.6 teillion in 2022. So, you can see that we are making steady progress and this is possible because we are deploying digitalisation, ICT and innovation in our business process.
“It also shows the huge investment in human capacity and infrastructure by the Nigeria Customs Service management in this and I must give kudos to the present Comptroller General of Customs, who in less than one year of coming into office has been able to achieve this milestone.”
Adeniyi stressed that one of the key components of the e-Customs modernisation project was the integration of various stakeholders into one digital platform.