From Uche Usim, Abuja 

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) yesterday disclosed that it has so far generated N1,012,259,006,779 as revenue for 2017, which remains the highest since its creation in 1891. 

The figure is N241,685,276,289 higher than the Customs’ 2017 target of N770,573,730,490 and also dwarfs the revenue collected in 2016, which was N898,673,857,431. 

The Public Relations Officer of Customs, Joseph Attah, who disclosed this at a press briefing in Abuja said the Service expects to generate some more revenue for the government before the year winds down in few days time. 

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According to him, the feat was achieved despite the harsh economic climate because the management doggedly implemented the Presidential mandate of Restructuring, Reforming and Raising revenue (3Rs), as handed down to the Comptroller General, Hameed Ali by President Muhammadu Buhari on assumption of duties. 

Attah said: “Despite the economic recession experienced earlier in the year with low volume of imports, occasioned by restriction placed on 41 items from accessing forex, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ibrahim Ali undertook some strategic measures in terms of restructuring and repositioning the Service for efficient service delivery which resulted in this historic revenue figure from the Service this year.

“To achieve this feat, the CGC took some measures to redeploy officers and men of the NCS; overhauling and re-training the operatives of the Customs Intelligence Unit; maximizing the potential of automation through monitoring, tracking infractions, blocking and recovering lost revenues.

“Others were the re-invigoration of anti-smuggling operations, setting up a Compliance Team to serve as the third layer of security, rregime of prompt reward for hard work and punishment for wrong-doing; transparent promotion process strictly based on merit; deliberate and sustained sensitization/stakeholder engagement across the country, among others.