FG sets N3.019tr target for Customs in 2022

The Federal Government has urged the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to generate N3.019 trillion revenue in 2022.

According to The Nation, Customs Public Relations Officer (PRO) Mr. Joseph Attah, who broke the news in Abuja, noted that plans were underway to surpass the target.

The NCS had last year raked in N2.2 trillion. In 2020, it generated N1.5trillion.

Asked to reveal the revenue target, Attah said: “This year, we have been given N3.019 trillion as the target for 2022.

“As usual, we will be looking at meeting the target and even surpassing it. Usually after we are given this target, inwardly we set another target for ourselves as a strategy not to only meet the Federal Government target but to even meet our own target which is usually above what is set for us.”

The PRO also noted that towards the end of 2021, the NCS took delivery of three brand new scanners that were installed in Apapa, Tin Can and Onne.

He described the three ports as the three major ones that have the high volume of import into Nigeria.

Attah added that the service will deploy the scanners any moment in 2022.

With the scanners, according to him, “trade will be robustly facilitated and examination will be very swift and transparent.

“It will have impact on national security because they will enable us to see what the ordinary eyes will find it difficult to detect.”

He added it will also translate to quick turnover for international trade actors.

The PRO disclosed that the NCS on Thursday commissioned 18 Creek patrol boats in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Smugglers, he said, are running away from the heat on the land and taking to the creeks as safe avenues for their criminal acts.

“So, we are taking the battle to the creeks. Before our regular patrol boats cannot access the creeks because of the shallow waters. “Now we have specially built boats with flat bottoms that can access creeks even when waters have receeded.

“So, we have boosted the capacity of the Marine Officers to fight smuggling on water and creeks and others,” he said.