By Eguono Odjegba

THE  Area 11 Onne Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has collected N22.95 billion in revenue between in the first quarter of 2020, Q1’20. This is in addition to the seizures of seven containers with total Duty Paid Value, DPV, of N215.4 million within the same period.

In a statement by the Command Public Relations Officer, Ifeoma Onuigbo, the Command also recorded 1,053,531 metric tonnes of export with Free on Board, FOB, value of N87.1 million in addition to the collection of a total of N132.4 million worth of Export Supervision Scheme, NESS, in the Q1’20.

Giving the breakdown of the revenue generation, the Customs Area Controller, Aliyu Galadima Saidu, said that the sum of N7.7 billion was generated in January; N7.6 billion in February and N7.7 billion in March 2020.

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He said the seizures of containers comprised 1,225 bales of used clothing, 35 sacks of used shoes, 86 bales of used hand bags and other the miscellaneous goods such as foreign detergent, lightings, foreign parboiled rice, perfume, body spray and others, all valued at N215,387,201.18.

For export, Saidu said 377,985 metric tonnes were processed through the port in January; 455,987 metric tonnes in February and 219,559 metric tonnes in March.

According to the area customs boss, the offensive items were brought into the country in contravention of the Customs and Excise Management Act and extant import prohibition list.

He attributed the performance to the commitment and resilience of officers and men of the command despite the challenge of Coronavirus pandemic.

He said, “I want to commend our officers and port users for keeping the tempo of activities going in Onne port without compromising basic rules of hand washing, usage of sanitizers and strict maintenance of the social distancing rules.

“Let us continue to be health and safety conscious this period and beyond, while shunning any attempts at making us compromise on our duties of revenue collection, trade facilitation and suppression of smuggling.”

He also urged stakeholders to utilise all Customs modernisation options available to them to reduce human contacts as much as possible while conducting businesses in the ports.

He added, “Compliance is very vital to trade facilitation. All importers and agents are once again enjoined to be compliant by making sincere and accurate declarations, avoid concealment, under value and smuggling under any guise.”