Commentaries

Comptroller Yusuf Malanta: The Revenue Marshall of Nigeria Customs

Comptroller Yusuf displaying some of the seized contraband goods

Eyewitness Reporter

The Apapa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service is unarguably the biggest revenue basket of the agency.

The command, as the flagship of the tax-collecting agency of the Federal Government, contributes the largest chunk of the annual revenue targets of the service, year in year out.

Its contributions to the revenue profile of the service are conservatively put at between 35 percent to 40 percent of the revenue earnings of the organization, each year.

It is for this reason the command has consistently become a cash cow which annually boosts the increasing revenue propensity of the service.

However, never in the history of the service had Apapa Command boosted the revenue collection of the agency than now.

Never in the history of the service than now had the Apapa command redefined the act of revenue collection taken to an unprecedented and dizzying height.

Never in the history of the service than now had the Command recorded a blistering form in revenue generation.

Never in the history of the service than now had the command combined the twin objectives of revenue generation and trade facilitation with admirable ease to achieve record-breaking feats.

In 2021, the command collected a whooping sum of N870.388 billion as revenue, a collection higher by 68 percent over the N518.0446 billion collected in 2020.

That was the year, 2021, when Comptroller Yusuf Malanta Ibrahim, the revenue Marshall, berthed at the Command as its Area Controller.

Yusuf, who was appointed and took over as the helmsman of the premier Customs Command, will be a year old in the saddle in February 2022.

But within 12 months, shy of a few days, which he has so far marshaled the affairs of the flagship command, Comptroller Yusuf has redefined the act of revenue collection.

With gusto, he has broken all the records in the books in terms of revenue mobilization and collection.

A monthly analysis of the revenue haul of the command in 2021 showed that he is a man who relishes aiming for the sky.

In February when he took over, he met a monthly revenue earning of N49.544 billion.

Ever since then through to December, the revenue Marshall has not looked back as he achieved a geometry increase in revenue collection.

In March, the command collected N55.645 billion and in April, it was N65.463billion.

May recorded N62.966billiion while the sum of N78.500million was collected in June.

July recorded the sum of N72.536billion and N87.881billion in August.

The sum of 82.147billion was collected in September and October yielded N86.022 billion.

The month of November witnessed an unprecedented monthly collection of a humongous sum of N89.766 billion which was a record revenue collection never witnessed in a single month in the entire Service.

In December, the sum of N85.516 billion was collected to round up the year.

In total, the command collected an eye-popping sum of N870,388,340,650.65 billion

This sum is 37.84 percent of the N2.3 trillion realised by the entire Service in 2021.

The revenue target of the service for 2022 has been fixed at the sum of N4.1 trillion.

Out of this, the Apapa port Command, expectedly, will contribute the largest chunk of the target.

Going by its propensity for recording a geometric increase in revenue generation, it is expected that the Apapa command will also take the lead in the quest of the Customs High command to meet the mega target of N4.1 trillion.

If the command could rake in N870.388 billion in 2021, which translates to 21.2 percent of N4.1 trillion of this year’s service target, it then presupposes that the command is expected to contribute nothing less than N1trillion to the year’s target.

This is based on the fact that N870.388 billion (2021 total revenue of Apapa) of N2.3 trillion of last year’s target is 37.84 percent, the same percentage of this year’s N4.1 trillion will therefore translate to N1.55 trillion.

And going by the geometric increase in its revenue collection, the Apapa Command is expected to gross nothing less than 1 trillion this year.

The command, under the able leadership of Comptroller Yusuf, is by no means intimidated by the task ahead.

Already, Malanta has primed the machinery of the command to execute the project.

“For us in Apapa Area Command, we have already boarded and fastened our seat belts towards the realisation of this target ( the N4.1 trillion revenue target for 2022.)

Such was the zeal, determination and resilience of the one also known as revenue mobiliser.

Malanta knows the structure and internal workings of Apapa command like the back of his hand.

Before his present assignment, he had held sway at the same Command as its ASYCUDA Project Manager(APM) where, working behind the scene, he had used technology to boost the revenue profile of the command.

Using his acumen as a system man, Malanta had worked as the APM to sustain the status of the command as the biggest revenue basket for the service.

Automated system for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) is a technological tool used by Customs to enhance its operations and boost revenue generation.

As the one driving the project then, it means that Malanta is well-grounded in automation processes.

His background in ICT technology thus prepared him for his present assignment as the helmsman of the Apapa command.

So it was a homecoming for Malanta in February 2021 when he was redeployed to Apapa, as the Area Controller to work in familiar terrain.

That explains the ease and clinical efficiency he marshalls the revenue machinery of Apapa command for huge harvest.

His knowledge of the terrain and the technicalities of the job also explained why Comptroller Yusuf hit the ground running almost immediately he assumed duties in 2021.

Comptroller Yusuf also combines his proficiency and propensity for revenue generation with trade facilitation with admirable ease.

He encourages trade compliance among the trading public, especially those plying their trade at Apapa command.

His belief was that compliance aids trade facilitation which in turn boosts revenue generation.

As a result, he always preaches compliance among the trading public and admonishes the traders to embrace compliance that will aid quick service delivery.

His love for compliance made him create a special unit called the compliance department which enhances compliance among traders.

With his uncompromising attitude towards compliance, the trading public has come to conform with the tenets of goods clearing procedures at the command.

Also, the men and officers of the command, the foot soldiers and field commanders, have taken a cue from the revenue Marshall not to compromise in their duties.

Whoever among the trading public who refuses to be compliant always feels the wrath of the revenue Marshall who seizes such unconventional goods without batting an eyelid.

This explains the uncompromising anti-smuggling machinery of the command which rolls with ruthless and clinical efficiency that recorded 103 seizures of contraband goods in 2021 with duty paid value of N31.227 billion.

The trade facilitation drive of the command has also resulted in the processing of five million, three hundred and eighty tonnes of exports in 2021 with the dollar value of $641 million as against the $340 million recorded in 2020

Comptroller Yusuf has often told the trading public that he is a friend to compliant traders while a nemesis to recalcitrant ones.

The revenue Marshall at the command has therefore dexterously combined the use of technology, superior intelligence gathering, forensic manifest management system and the synergy he has forged with other sister agencies, to propel the Apapa command to a commanding height of revenue generation.

To realise the 2022 revenue goal, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), the Customs High commander, can always rely on the technology-savvy of Malanta to lead the crack team of revenue mobilisers in the service who are expected to prosecute the onerous task of meeting the N4.1 trillion revenue mark.

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Commentaries

National Single Window: Beyond analogue horizon

Ibrahim Nasiru

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It must extend to the hard, physical operations on the ground.

You cannot claim to build a modern maritime gateway while thousands of diesel-guzzling trucks remain trapped in manual bottlenecks along the Apapa and Tin Can access corridors.

Tomorrow, we look past the paper declarations and audit the raw infrastructure execution required to save our maritime future.

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Commentaries

Beyond the presidential signature: NPERA and new enforcement reality of Nigerian Ports

Ibrahim Nasiru

President Bola Tinubu’s assent to the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) Bill, 2026, is the single most consequential legislative event in the modern history of our maritime domain.

Announced on August 13, 2026, by the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Dr. Pius Akutah, this law marks the definitive end of regulatory hesitation at our Port gates.

For over a decade, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council operated under a crippling structural handicap.

Drafted as an interim economic regulator by policy directive in 2014, the Council was essentially a referee without a whistle.

It relied heavily on moral suasion, diplomatic mediation, and advocacy to get things done.

Multinational shipping lines and terminal concessionaires knew this systemic weakness and exploited it.

They routinely dragged the Council to court to stall enforcement, buy time, and protect their arbitrary local charges.

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The Nigerian Shippers’ Council has officially been weaponized into an independent, executive umpire backed by the full raw enforcement powers of an Act of Parliament.

The immediate message to the maritime community is loud and direct: the era of arbitrary tariff regimes and parallel pricing structures is officially dead.

Under the new NPERA framework, the agency holds exclusive statutory powers to approve, review, or freeze Port costs.

Any shipping line or terminal manager attempting to introduce unapproved local handling fees or manipulative demurrage timelines will face immediate, binding legal sanctions.

Crucially, this new law draws a hard line under the chronic agency supremacy tussles that have choked national productivity for years.

The operational boundaries are now mathematically clear. The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) remains the technical landlord. NIMASA retains control over safety and marine security. NPERA steps in as the supreme financial and economic regulator.

Furthermore, the introduction of specialized administrative arbitration tribunals means shippers no longer have to endure years of delayed litigation in civilian courts to resolve commercial disputes.

Wrongful container detentions and predatory monopolies can now be penalised within a specialized regulatory framework.

However, stakeholders must understand that this transition operates on a tight bureaucratic clock.

While the policy freeze on unapproved tariffs is immediate, the next 90 days will see the formal gazetting and full asset migration into the new legal structure.

By late 2026, mandatory statutory registration for all active maritime service providers will become an unyielding reality.

The signature on the bill is a massive victory, but paper alone cannot clear a port corridor.

The newly empowered leadership of NPERA must immediately deploy these legal teeth to smash the manual bottlenecks and parallel checkpoints that undermine our trade velocity.

The law has changed, the referee finally has a whistle, and the industry must align with this new enforcement reality.

Chief Ibrahim Nasiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja

Commentaries

Two years of Dantsoho at NPA: The architecture of efficiency boom

Ibrahim Nasiru

This July, Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho marks exactly two years as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), providing a vital opportunity to separate institutional noise from actual structural progress.

For decades, Nigeria’s maritime gateways were plagued by massive infrastructural deficits, manual gridlocks, and fragmented policies.

Today, through a deliberate blend of home-grown institutional experience and top-tier academic expertise in maritime technology, Dantsoho is rewriting that narrative from the inside out.

He has successfully shifted the NPA away from reactive firefighting and anchored it firmly on aggressive, infrastructure-led growth.

His two-year legacy is anchored on absolute automation and massive capital injection.

By securing a landmark $1 billion in dedicated modernization funding for the comprehensive rehabilitation of aging gateways and aggressively spearheading the National Single Window infrastructure, his office is systematically eliminating the human bottlenecks that feed desk corruption at the Ports.

This structural renaissance is not just about aesthetics; it is about rebuilding the foundational complexes of Apapa, Tin Can Island, Onne, and Calabar to withstand the demands of modern global trade.

The financial reward for this fiscal discipline is already evident, with the authority confidently pacing toward an unprecedented ₦1.489 trillion revenue peak for the 2026 fiscal year.

This massive revenue trajectory cements Nigeria’s role as West Africa’s undisputed trade hub and proves that the administration’s fiscal leaks are being blocked effectively through digital transformation.

By driving the final operational phases of the Port Community System (PCS) to anchor the newly approved National Single Window, Dantsoho is systematically transforming the clearing ecosystem from a manual bureaucrat’s playground into a highly transparent, hyper-efficient digital gateway.

While local operators and stakeholders continue to demand closer engagement, Dantsoho’s strategic blueprint demonstrates that his focus remains entirely on delivering the long-awaited structural environment where every maritime stakeholder can seamlessly thrive.

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With automated transshipment channels opening up to landlocked neighbouring countries via Lekki Deep Seaport, the foundation for total ease of doing business has finally been poured.

What makes Dantsoho’s career worth celebrating over the last twenty-four months is the climate in which he has delivered these reforms.

In an era where international shipping lines are highly sensitive to operational delays, the NPA has aggressively reduced ship turnaround times and improved cargo throughput.

This latest two-year milestone is a timely reminder that while maritime challenges are complex, the value of raw human integrity, deep institutional memory, and consistent high-quality output can never be replaced.

Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho has proven that he is not just a placeholder in office, but an architect building the future of Nigerian maritime trade.

Chief Ibrahim Nasiru, public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja