The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said N1.341 trillion was generated as revenue by the service for the year 2019.

This was disclosed in a statement issued by the Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller of Customs, Joseph Attah.

The amount generated which exceeded the service’s target of N937 billion by N404 billion was has attributed mainly in part to the land border closure policy of the Federal Government.

The revenue is also N139.24 billion more than the N1.20 trillion generated in 2018.

Speaking on the achievement, Comptroller-General of Customs, Col, Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd), said the service was able to achieve such feat as a result of the uncompromising stand of the service in doing what is right for the nation. He said the revenue generation of the service had been on the increase annually largely due to the strategic policies of the ongoing reforms in the service.

The Customs boss said the policies involved the strategic deployment of officers strictly using the standard operating procedure, strict enforcement of extant guidelines by the tariff and trade department, and the automation of the Customs process thereby, eliminating vices associated with the manual process.

Ali said that other strategic policies include robust stakeholder sensitization, resulting in more informed/voluntary compliance, increased disposition of officers and men to put national interest above selves.

Addressing the impact of ongoing border closure on port activities, Ali stated that there were lots of advantages. He said cargoes that could have been smuggled through the borders to come through the sea and airports, raised revenue collection from ports.

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“Before the commencement of the border drill on 20th August 2019, revenue generation was between N4bn to N5bn but now NCS generates between N5bn to N7bn daily.

“The partial border closure is decisive action against the challenging issue of trans-border crime and criminalities, fueled by the noncompliance to ECOWAS Protocol on transit of goods by neighbouring countries,” he told Daily Trust.