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How I reinvented revenue drive at Apapa Customs—Yusuf Malanta —-rakes in N366billon in six months.

Eyewitness reporter
Since Comptroller Yusuf Malanta Ibrahim took over the mantle of leadership at the Apapa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service in February 2021, the command has gone into a heightened revenue frenzy that is unprecedented in the history of the flagship command.
He has not only sustained the rich tradition of the command as the revenue basket of the service but has also reinvented the revenue drive of the command that has made it to consistently break all the revenue records in the history of the command.
At the press conference he held Tuesday to unveil the half-year performance of the command, Comptroller Malanta revealed what he did differently from his predecessors that has set the command on a new revenue trajectory.
“When I came in, I looked at the existing structure and discovered there were gaps and I proceeded to plugged the identified loopholes.
“I met a revenue of N48 billion. But ever since then, I have consistently grown the revenue profile of the command through the efforts of my committed and dedicated staff and support management staff.
“So in subsequent months, I have grown the revenue which I met from  N48 billion to N52 billion, N64 billion, and N66 billion.
“And today, (June), we are talking about N 78.4 billion.
But Malanta vowed that he was not going to stop at that as he intended to keep on building the revenue arsenal of the command.
While revealing the performance indices of the command in the first half of the year, Malanta disclosed that a whopping sum of N366 billion was realised between January to June, 2021.
This figure, according to him, represents a 61 percent increase when compared to the N227 billion that was collected with the corresponding period in 2020.
The command has continued to break all revenue barriers to set new revenue records when it again recorded an astounding N 78.4 billion in the month of June 21st which clearly shows an increase of over 90 percent when compared to the N 42.4 billion collected in the corresponding month under review.
This figure also dwarfed the sum of N65.5 billion which the command collected in April.
Similarly, the command processed export cargoes worth N272.3 billion between January to June 2021.
 The exports which passed through the command within the period under review included Agricultural goods such as sesame seed, ginger, hibiscus flower, and other mineral resources.
“The total tonnage of the said export stood at 1.6 million tones with FOB value of $103 billion.”
“This spectacular achievement was made possible by our officers’ resilience and commitment in ensuring collections of appropriate revenue, robust stakeholders’ engagement and seamless facilitation of compliant trade.”
Malanta further stated that the anti-smuggling operations of the command led to the interception of contraband smuggled into the country.
The seized items which worth N27.6billion include unregistered pharmaceutical, used clothing, tomato paste among others.
“Nonetheless, our sustained anti-smuggling campaign and the increased level of compliance have resulted in a reduction of smuggling activities throughout the command.
“Thus, for the period under review, the Command recorded 10 seizures of various uncustoms goods such as tomato paste, used clothing, unregistered pharmaceutical drugs with a Duty Paid Value of N442 million
“This unprecedented record is a great validation of our new approach to revenue drive. It is also fitting to emphasize here that this volume of revenue has never been recorded in the history of the flagship Command of the Nigeria Customs Service.”
“Consequent upon the above and in line with the provision of Extant laws, trade guidelines and enforcement of Government Fiscal Policy, the Command was able to strengthen its anti-smuggling operation against economic saboteurs through a timely credible intelligence-driven network which led to the seizure of 46 containers between January to June 2021 with Duty Paid Value of N27.6 billion.”
These unprecedented achievements were made amidst economic contraction that was worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic.
But, according to Malanta, the command was able to navigate through these difficult times with the vision of the management, commitment, and dedication of men and officers of the command.
 “I am not stopping at our present achievements.
“With the type of management team I have and the type of structure we have put in place, we shall continue to preach compliance.
“It is when there is compliance that cargo throughput will be faster and when cargo throughput is faster, the revenue declaration will be faster and therefore, revenue will be coming automatically” Comptroller Ibrahim declared.
The success story of Apapa command under the leadership of Malanta revolves around the use and deployment of ICT.
As a system man who is well versatile in the use of ICT, Malanta uses information technology to identify and plug revenue loopholes and this has boosted the revenue performance of the command.
Also, the command, under the prompting of the Area Comptroller, has developed strong inter-agency collaboration and deep stakeholders’ engagement that has helped the command to continue to break all the revenue barriers.
The command had also relentlessly preached the gospel of compliance which has so far changed the orientation of importers and their agents to made correct declarations and payment of Customs duties.
To underscore the importance he attached to compliance, Malanta created a new unit called Compliance unit to drive this crusade, advocacy that has started to yield high dividends as evidenced by the level of compliance among those who ply their trade in the command and the resultant accrued revenue.
The use of intelligence is another forte of the command which Malanta has successfully used to track cargoes bound for the command.
This explains the impressive records of seizures of contraband made by the command.
With this new ” structure” created by Malanta, it is hoped that the command will sustain the new revenue trajectory which has been responsible for the monthly revenue harvests that are expected to be further boosted by the hike in exchange rates for Customs duties.
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Customs

Customs shuns N12 trillion inflated revenue target imposed by National Assembly 

— focuses on realising N6.5 trillion 2025 target 
Funso OLOJO 
The Nigeria Customs Service may have tactically shrugged off the imposition of the N12 trillion revenue target by the National Assembly.
It could be recalled that government gave the NCS ₦6.5 trillion revenue target for 2025.
This followed the impressive revenue performance of the service in 2024 when it surpassed that year’s target of N5.07 trillion by 20.2 percent.
However , in January, 2025, the National Assembly joint committee on Finance led by its chairmen, Senator Sani Musa and Hon. James Faleke, believed that the projection of N6.5 trillion revenue target given to the customs was conservative and encouraged the NCS to aim higher.
Consequently, the joint committee slammed a whooping sum of N12 trillion as revenue target, doubling the initial N6.5 trillion projected revenue.
This humongous target sparked off an outrage among perplexed stakeholders who felt the target imposed by the law makers was outrageous and unrealistic which they feared may stretch the capacity of the customs to a breaking point and put unnecessary pressure on the men and officers of the agency.
Indication that the Customs authority may not be well disposed to the imposed target of N12 trillion by the National Assembly emerged recently when the Comptroller -General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, was giving account of the activities of the service in the first quarter of 2025.
While giving the analysis of the revenue performance of the service during the period under review, Adeniyi benchmarked the revenue generated by the service during the first quarter of 2025 by N6.5 trillion revenue target given by the Federal Ministry of Finance, thus jettisoning the N12 trillion imposed by the National Assembly.
“ Against our annual target of ₦6,580,000,000,000.00, the first quarter’s proportional benchmark stood at ₦1,645,000,000,000.00.
“I’m proud to announce we’ve exceeded this target by ₦106.5 billion, achieving 106.47% of our quarterly projection.
” This outstanding performance represents a substantial 29.96% increase  compared  to  the  same  period  in  2024,  where  we  collected
₦1,347,705,251,658.31″ Adewale stated, while giving the analysis of the performance of the service in the first three months of the year.
Analysts believed that from the analysis of the revenue performance of the NCS in the first quarter of the year which was predicated on the N6.5  trillion revenue target, it was obvious that the service was not paying much attention to the imposed N12 trillion,  but rather focusing on how to meet the more realistic target of N 6 .5 trillion.
” You can see that the CGC did not make mention of the N12 trillion imposed by the National Assembly which presupposes that the unrealistic amount is not in the reckoning of the Customs” a customs broker who plies his trade at Apapa port, said, pleading for anonymity.
” Where  on earth do they want the Customs to realize such an humongous amount of money in a depressed economy, in a country where importation has plummeted due to the unfriendly policies of government?
“It is unfortunate that these people (the law makers) have lost touch with the current economic realities in the country.
” All what they are after is to witch hunt government agencies to go and hunt for money for them to share.
” If not, how could they sit down in the comfort of their air conditioned offices and imposed such amount of revenue for customs to realize.
” Of course, the pressure would be on the men and officers of the service who will in turn go after the hapless importers and their agents in the most brutal way to raise the imposed target.
” It is unfortunate that the lawmakers, who are expected to make laws that will encourage export drive of the Federal government, are those asking the customs to focus more on the import goods where such money could be realized” another freight forwarder, who did not want his name in print but based at Tin Can Island port, declared.
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Customs

Exports slump in first quarter of 2025 as Customs processes 8,153 shipments  in three months.

Funso OLOJO 
The export drive of the Federal government suffered a slight set back in the first quarter of 2025 when Nigeria recorded an export shipment of 8,153 (SGDs) during the period, down from 8,710 shipments(SGDs) recorded in the last quarter of 2024, representing 6.4 per cent decline and further slump of 24.4 per cent over the first quarter of 2024 which stood at 10,786 shipments(SGDs).
The statistics were part of the first quarter activities of the Nigeria customs service as presented by the Comptroller- General of Customs on Tuesday April 22nd, 2025.
” Despite fewer transactions, export mass reached 5.03 billion kilograms – a 10% reduction from Q4 2024’s 5.58 billion kg but a remarkable 348% increase from Q1 2024’s 1.12 billion kg.
“The CIF value stood at ₦21.51 trillion, showing a 19% increase from Q4 2024’s ₦18.07 trillion while remaining stable compared to Q1 2024’s ₦21.58 trillion.
“This data clearly suggestive of Nigeria’s accelerating shift toward bulk commodity exports, with significantly larger shipments being processed through fewer transactions, while maintaining consistent total export value – reflecting both changing trade patterns and improved processing efficiency in our export systems.
” The total trade value handled by the Service in Q1 2025 amounted to
₦36,317,925,576,290.00, demonstrating Nigeria’s substantial participation in international trade despite global economic challenges” CGC Adeniyi declared.
Conversely, the service processed a total of 327,928 Single Goods Declarations (SGDs) for imports, handling goods with a total mass of 4,910,640,283.33 kilograms and a Cost, Insurance, and Freight (CIF) value of ₦14,807,960,201,235.00.
“This represents a 5.28% increase in the number of import transactions compared to the 311,492 SGDs processed in Q1 2024, reflecting growing confidence in our trade facilitation measures.
“The significant 40.14% increase in the mass of imports processed (from 3,504,173,117.33 kg in Q1 2024) demonstrates robust growth in import volumes, while the 26.72% increase in CIF value (from ₦11,685,677,810,129.00 in Q1 2024) indicates a shift towards higher-value goods” the CGC stated.
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Customs

Customs realises N1.75 trillion revenue, records 298 seizures worth N7. 7 trillion in three months 

Gloria Odion 
The Nigeria Customs service has commenced an impressive run towards meeting the 2025 revenue target of N6.5 trillion when it realized a princely sum of N1.75 trillion in the first quarter of the year.
The quarterly revenue haul,which was N106.5 billion more that the quarterly target of N1.6 billion, signals the intention of the service to exceed this year’s revenue target.
Giving an account of the activities of the service on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025, the Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, said the first quarter revenue achieved 106.47 percent of the service projection.
“This outstanding performance represents a substantial 29.96% increase  compared  to  the  same  period  in  2024,  where  we  collected
₦1,347,705,251,658.31.
“Our month-by-month analysis reveals even more encouraging details of this growth trajectory. January’s collection of ₦647,880,245,243.67 not only surpassed its monthly target of ₦548.33 billion by 18.12%, but also showed a remarkable 65.77% year-on-year growth.
” February’s ₦540,105,439,535.18 exceeded its target by 1.3% while achieving 19.97% growth over 2024 figures.
“March maintained this positive trend with ₦563,516,567,519.20, delivering 2.7% above target and an 11.22% improvement over March 2024.
“These results substantiate our effective measures to curb revenue losses while streamlining compliant trade. The 29.96% annual increase and steady monthly collections confirm our strategy is working.
“We’ll maintain this momentum through rigorous enforcement and strengthened partnerships” CGC  Adeniyi pledged.
In the same vein, the service recorded an an impressive seizures of contraband and smuggled goods during the period under review.
It intercepted 298 smuggled goods with the Duty Paid Value(DPV) of N7.7 trillion.
“This represents a significant 78.41% increase compared to the ₦4,315,162,568.35 recorded in Q4 2024, demonstrating heightened operational effectiveness.
“However, when compared to Q1 2024’s
₦9,587,256,998.05,  the  Service  observed  a  19.70%  reduction  in  DPV,
 attributable to improved compliance through sustained stakeholder engagement and the deterrent effect of our enforcement activities.
“Rice remained the most prevalent seized commodity, with 159 cases involving 135,474 bags valued at ₦939,309,698.00.
“Petroleum products followed with 61 seizures totaling 65,819 liters (₦43,336,160.81 DPV).
” Of particular note were 22 narcotics interceptions valued at ₦730,748,173.00, reflecting our intensified focus on combating drug trafficking.
” The Service also recorded three high-value wildlife product seizures with a remarkable ₦5,653,522,600.00 DPV, underscoring both the lucrative nature of this illegal trade and our commitment to environmental protection under international conventions.
“Other notable seizures included textile fabrics (13 cases, ₦134,219,330.00 DPV), retreaded tires (5 cases, ₦104,599,000.00 DPV), and pharmaceuticals (1 case, ₦17,188,000.00 DPV).
“These comprehensive results demonstrate the Service’s vigilance across all categories of prohibited and restricted goods.
Under the same period, the customs processed a total of 327,928 Single Goods Declarations(SGDs) for import while it processed 8,153 export shipments
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