The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it generated N1.347 trillion revenue between January and March 2024, surpassing the monthly average revenue target of about N4.2 billion in the year.
Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, gave the update at a press briefing on Wednesday, saying that the revenue accrual for the first quarter of 2024 was a 122.35 percent increase over the N606 billion collected in the same period last year.
He said that in the period under review, several systemic challenges impeded the Service’s operations. He particularly expressed concerns over the significant fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, which he said pose challenges to its operations.
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Adeniyi said the Customs in collaboration with the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, was working with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, to forestall a possible recurrence of the exchange rate fluctuations which he said happened for about 13 times in March alone.
Adeniyi said 572 seizures were made in the same first quarter of 2024, topped by rice smuggling, adding: “We have not done anything to alter the rates. The rates for clearance for vehicles remain the same. We are monitoring the situation. Unlike in the previous dispensation when CBN was lord unto themselves; when nobody could talk to them, this one is better.”
