NIGERIA CUSTOMS SERVICE PLEDGES TO RAISE COMMAND’S REVENUE COLLECTION TO 100%-COMPTROLLER DERA NNADI OF TINCAN ISLAND PORT
Comptroller Dera Nnadi of Tincan Island Port Command, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has pledged to raise the command’s revenue collection from 52 per cent currently to 100 per cent by December.
Nnadi made the pledge while taking over the command from Comptroller Adekunle Oloyede, who has been redeployed to the Customs headquarters as Comptroller, Import and Export.
Nnadi, while speaking at the handover ceremony in Lagos on Thursday, solicited the support and collaboration of stakeholders to enable the command to meet its over N801 billion annual revenue target.
With barely three months to the end of the year and the challenge posed by the floating of the exchange rate, the task ahead is daunting but I hope to surmount it with the support and cooperation of stakeholders.
For us as a command, it is a daunting task but it is surmountable. You are all aware that Nigeria Customs Service has three key performance indicators – revenue, anti-smuggling and trade facilitation.
“These three serve as yardsticks for measuring our performance. These indicators will always remain relevant in our discussion until we attain full development as a nation.
The command’s revenue target of over N801 billion currently stands at 52 per cent with barely three months to the end of the year. It means that all of us here owe the country the responsibility to collect the balance of 48 per cent.
“This is especially at a time when the floating exchange rate is affecting importers and indirectly affecting clearing agents. This is a big but achievable task,” he said.
He noted that similarly, their roles in securing the nation were vast, including intervention against economic saboteurs, who disrupt and take advantage of the nation’s trade policy.
“This also includes those who contribute to the insecurity of the country through the importation of illicit goods,” he said.
Nnadi, while affirming his resolve to rebrand the command, however, warned that the command under his leadership would not tolerate undue interference in trade matters.
He urged all stakeholders, including clearing agents and terminal operators to respect the Customs mandate as a Service.
“Everybody here, freight forwarders, terminal operators and shipping companies and other government agencies have their various mandates.
“We will not tolerate undue interference with any other person’s privacy. Incursions by other people in trade matters have to stop. If we agree to equity, we must come with clean hands,” he said.
The new CAC promised to run an open-door policy to legitimate traders but shut his doors against fraudulent importers, whose desire was to shortchange the government of its revenue, illicit importation and smuggling.
Earlier, Oloyede urged officers and stakeholders including sister agencies, to extend the same support and collaboration given to him to the new Comptroller, whom he described as a trade facilitator.
He noted that this would enable him succeed and achieve the command’s revenue target.
On the improvement of clearing agents’ level of compliance, Oloyede urged them to extend intelligence shared with the command in its anti-smuggling operation that led to the seizure of two containers of tramadol to the new helmsman.
“I know we are already in the ember months, so the incoming Comptroller will need your support to be able to meet the revenue target and I know he is going to break my records.
“I also promise to give my support as the Comptroller in charge of Import and Export and ensure that, by God’s grace, he succeeds.
When I came here, we tried all we could do, deployed several tools to make our work easier. Before leaving, we made a seizure that the Service saw as a commendable seizure and about nine officers were given letters of commendation,” he said.
Oloyede noted that this showed that the command was doing well because of the support and the intelligence shared with the command by the clearing agents.
