The Nigeria Customs Service has crossed the N2 trillion mark in its revenue generation, its Comptroller-General Hameed Ali has said.
Ali, who disclosed this in Abuja at the graduation ceremony for Customs Senior course 5 and Junior course 11 held at Nigeria Customs Command and Staff College, Gwagwalada, also assured that the long-awaited e-Customs project will be launched in the first quarter of 2022.
Ali said the e-Customs project will bring to an end the manual processes currently adopted for cargo clearance at the airport, seaport and land border stations.
He said once the e-Customs package is deployed, all officers and men are expected to be fully fortified with digital procedures as the Service is not ready to harbour non-compliant staff who may become a clog in the wheel of progress.
Ali said the e-Customs project is expected to boost national security through the development of systems and networks aimed at the prevention and suppression of smuggling, while boosting revenue generation and deepening ease of doing business by eliminating unnecessary human contact.
“We are almost signing the e-Customs concession agreement and once we get that signed, the next thing is the commencement of implementation. The consortium is ready. They have made the contacts for their supplies and their suppliers are ready and so are people who are keying into it. All we’re waiting for is to get the vetted copy of the agreement from the Ministry of Justice and once it is signed, we would launch the e-Customs process and that should be around the first quarter of 2022 and then, we monitor implementation,” the Customs Comptroller-General said.
On the revenue collected so far this year, Ali said, ““In 2020, we did very well despite the pandemic and the hiccups. We are doing exceptionally well too this year. We have crossed the N2 trillion border in terms of collection. Before the end of the year, we hope to achieve N2.2 to 2.3 trillion.”
Speaking earlier, the Commandant of the Customs Command and Staff College Gwagwalada, Assistant Comptroller-General Wale Adeniyi, said 78 participants, comprising 38 senior staff and 40 from the junior cadre, displayed a high level of professionalism in the training started in June this year.
Adeniyi appreciated the Customs Comptroller-General for the approval for the acquisition of two generating sets in addition to solar energy arrangements as a strategic way of tackling the epileptic power supply at the college.
He urged the Customs Board to consider expanding the college to accommodate foreigners through exchange programmes.
“We urge the Customs board to accord the expansion agenda of the college a priority status next year,” he said.
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