The Nigeria Customs Service has announced that it is collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria to establish a stable exchange rate for imports.
This initiative aims to address the significant disruptions in business planning caused by frequent changes in the exchange rate over recent months.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Mr. Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed this development during a press conference in Abuja yesterday, marking his one year in office.
He emphasized the importance of a stable exchange rate, saying, “The frequent changes in the exchange rate have caused huge distortions in business planning. We are working closely with the CBN to stabilize this for the benefit of our importers and the economy.”
In the past year, the NCS has achieved remarkable success in revenue collection. Adeniyi reported, “The NCS recorded a total revenue collection of N4.49 trillion between June 2023 and May 2024, which represents a 74% growth compared to the N2.58 trillion collected during the same period the previous year. This achievement was underpinned by a sustained increase of 70.13% in average monthly revenue collection.”
Highlighting the progress made in the first quarter of 2024, Adeniyi noted, “There was a substantial 122.35% rise in revenue collection during the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in the previous year. On June 13, 2024, we recorded a daily all-time high of N58.5 billion in revenue collection.”
Several initiatives contributed to these gains, including the Revenue Review Performance Recovery exercise, which recovered N15 billion, and the 90-day window for regularizing the documents of uncustomed vehicles, which brought in N2.79 billion. Additionally, the decongestion of 1,705 overtime containers and 981 vehicles from the port recovered N1.5 billion.
Adeniyi attributed the success to strategic deployment of officers and trade facilitation measures. He said, “The deployment of officers to sensitive posts on the basis of merit and capacity was key to the performance recorded within the period under review. The decongestion of ports and the reopening of previously inaccessible access roads played key roles in our trade facilitation mandate.”
The NCS’s ranking under the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) has significantly improved. Adeniyi stated, “Between 2020 and 2022, the NCS maintained an average percentage score of 18.45%, ranking 28th out of 37 MDAs. By 2023, our ranking fell to 34th out of 39 MDAs. However, by 2024, we moved up 33 places, now tied at the top with four other MDAs with a percentage score of 100%, marking an 81.5% increase. This improvement is directly attributed to the trade facilitation measures implemented within the past year.”
The designation of a dedicated terminal for exports has also yielded significant gains. Adeniyi explained, “Initially handling 317 Single Goods Declarations (SGDs), the terminal now manages 7,464 SGDs, accounting for 19.49% of the total 38,294 export transactions recorded in 2023. By the first quarter of 2024, we processed a total of 10,786 transactions, with 3,162 (29.32%) of these processed through the dedicated export terminal.”
Adeniyi also highlighted the NCS’s anti-smuggling efforts, stating, “In the past year, our anti-smuggling operations resulted in significant interceptions, high-value seizures, and numerous arrests, including 63 seizures related to animal and wildlife products valued at N566 million.”
