JUST IN: Prolonged border closure hurting revenue generation at Seme border — Customs

The Nigerian Customs Service, NCS Seme Area Command has lamented the severe impact of prolonged border closure on revenue generation at the Seme border.

Customs Area Controller Seme Command, Comptroller Dera Nnadi, gave  the figures during a media briefing of the First Quarter, Q1 performance of the Command and the handing over of fake $6 million to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC as well as handing over of other seized items to partner government agencies at Seme, Badagry.

He said: “The major source of revenue of the Command (import/export) have not been enhanced since the opening of the land Borders as directed by the Federal Government of Nigeria as the traders are still bracing with the challenges of having been out of business for over two years.”

Nnadi also disclosed that the Command made a seizure of 1,160 pieces of dead rats, 1,102 pieces of dead tiny birds and 34 pieces of monkey skin and 14 parcels of cannabis sativa.

Customs Area Controller Seme Command, Comptroller Dera Nnadi, gave  the figures during a media briefing of the First Quarter, Q1 performance of the Command and the handing over of fake $6 million to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC and handing over of other seized items to partner government agencies at Seme, Badagry.

He explained that the command found that an international syndicate specialises in such illicit deals, saying: “We must be conscious of the fact that the entire world is battling with various diseases. We just came out of Ebola and CoronaVirus, who knows what would come out of these dead rats and birds if they are not seized.”

Nnadi said that in the first quarter of this year, Q1’22, the Command facilitated the movement of  goods under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme, ETLS. These  include   425 Trucks with fees amounting to N314.72 million; 412 baggage declarations with duty amounting to N58.84 million

He said that the items imported under this arrangement included food products and beverages produced within the sub-region.

For export, he said that 1,243 trucks bearing 40,096.47 metric tons of made in Nigeria cargo were declared on 165 Single Administrative Documents (SAD) with Free On Board value of N4.29 billion  and National Export Supervision Scheme, NESS fee of N21.46  million.

He pointed out that during the same period in 2022, 3006 trucks bearing 116,053.9 metric tons of cargo with FOB value of N6.59 billion with NESS fee of N32.98 million were recorded.