While Nigeria still battles the challenges of porous borders that have overtime been exploited by smugglers, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it still generate N1.5 billion on a daily basis from duties at the nation’s boarders.
Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of Customs, disclosed this yesterday when he paid a courtesy visit to Ibok-Ete Ibas, chief of naval staff in Abuja.
He however lamented that the NCS was presently constraint with limited facilities to carry out its duties as well as lacking the capacity to generate the needed revenue for the country, hence the need to get support from the Nigerian Navy in guarding the waterways.
He noted that apart from the daily generation, “the nation loses billions of naira during most of its numerous public holidays.”
He said: “Part of our job on trade certification is dependent on the navy, the more we get the more likely our revenue rises.
“Any day we declare public holiday we lose money, in practical terms the Customs. Our ports generates about N1 billion to N1.5 billion a day, so any day they say public holiday that N1.5 billion is gone. And Nigerians love holiday, if Christmas falls on Saturday we will say we want to have Monday as holiday, but to us it’s a pain because we are now looking at it in terms of raw cash.”
Ali said the Customs marine command “is depleted and the few ones that are trained have now been retired, and we are now in a state that we really need to train these people; which we can only have from the Navy.
“If you oblige us, there are young talented people that am sure they will be trained for them to effectively do their job”.
To this end, Ali said that the Customs under his leadership is reaching out to their strategic partners in the sector, especially Nigeria Navy, to be able it generate more revenue and provide better services.
The Custom boss listed the areas they would need partnership and assistance from the Navy, including running of the two newly acquired marine boats and patrolling the waterside.
Secondly, he said, “we will ask for the training of our men as we go along, so that we have people that would know exactly what to do when they are in those waters and know exactly what to look for, so that if they see what they are looking for how do they go about arresting the situation.”
Responding, Ibas agreed that the nation was faced with serious challenges, key among was the dwindling revenue, “and since the Customs is one of the pillars through which the nation depends, it is therefore imperative that we do things differently to help us as a nation survive.”
He however noted that in recent times, the challenges in the maritime environment had expanded from smuggling to pipeline vandalism, piracy, oil smuggling, crude oil theft and other vices.
