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AfCFTA Secretary-General solicits support of Nigeria Customs for implementation of continental trade agreement

 

—lauds automation system of the service as  world-class

Eyewitness reporters

The Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area(AfCFTA) has declared that the expertise and experience of the Nigeria Customs Service are critical to the successful implementation of the continental trade agreement.

Mr. Wamkele Mene, the Secretary-General of the Continental trade body disclosed this Wednesday when he led a team from the secretariat of the Continental trade at Accra, Ghana to the Apapa Customs Command.

The AfCFTA Scribe and his entourage were in the Apapa command to seek firsthand information on the automation process of the Nigeria Customs service.

Mr Mene and his entourage, who were taken through a practical demonstration of the automation process by the Apapa Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Malanta Ibrahim Yusuf, were full of praises for the advanced form of automation process of the Nigeria Customs Service which he said they were ready to learn and adopt as a model for other African countries, some of which he said their Customs operations are still in a primitive level.

”We cannot implement the agreement without the Customs authorities. We cannot leave the implementation to the policy people in the ministries of trade. We need the Customs authorities as the pillar of successful implementation of the trade agreement.” he said.

He revealed that the Secretariat has hosted five meetings in Accra of the heads of Customs in Africa where they were asked for their support and input on how to implement the trade agreement.

”Without their involvement, we cannot succeed” he reiterated.

Earlier, Comptroller Yusuf, in a slide show, explained the automation and digitalisation process of Customs operations and how it evolved from 1998 with the ACYCUDA project and how it went through a different transformation to the present level of enhanced automation level that has made Customs processes seamless, faster, quicker.

He also discussed the trade facilitation process at the Customs, especially at the Apapa command which is the flagship of the Nigeria Customs service.

This was followed by a physical demonstration by taking the AfCFTA team to the CPC and the APMT .

An apparently impressed AfCFTA Secretary-General said Nigeria has a world-class automation process which the Secretariat will adopt as a model for other less endowed countries, some of which Customs operations are still manually done.

”My assessment is that the Nigeria Customs automation system is a top-class system, it is digital, it is automated. It is world-class.

”As I earlier mentioned, sometimes we mention Singapore and Dubai but we have our own success story here on the continent, particularly when it comes to digital systems.

”So I congratulate the Nigeria Customs service for all of the technological innovations to move ahead and take the lead.

”There are others who simply don’t have the system, we will have to meet them up to make sure all of us are at the same level of automation”

”Different countries in the continent are in different levels of automation and that is a problem because it means that our systems are not speaking to one another.

”Our responsibility is to think about how to develop a system to bring us to the same level, and that is what we learned that Nigeria is moving ahead in automation and digitalisation.

”As a secretariat, our role therefore will be to create a system or encourage an automation system that all customs authorities can have confidence in.

”There would be challenges, some countries will not be ready,  while some counties will say they have challenges with the internet, with the borders, we should expect there would be these challenges.

”But I think if we invest in soft infrastructures, and digital systems that will make a trade to be faster, more efficient, and quicker at affordable rates, that is exactly what we should be striving for.

”There are different levels of automation. Some countries simply don’t have it. It is still manual, everything is done by hand.

”So all of the systems that Nigeria Customs have, we cannot say all African countries have them. So we have to make sure we learn from those who have the system and we roll out the models of such systems they have introduced as you have done here in Nigeria and make sure they use this automation and our systems inter- operatable so that if you are trading goods from Ghana to Togo, Togo to Benin, Benin to Nigeria, Nigeria to Niger, that is a seamless system and that is going to take investing, it will require resources.

”That is not the concern of Nigeria, that has to be our concern at the Secretariat to make sure we mobilise resources for a customs system that is automated for the African continent.

”It may not happen next month or this year but we have to make sure we do it in the next three to four years mobilising these investments”, he declared`

Mr Mene disclosed that the objective of their visit is to learn the operations of the Nigeria Customs Service as his team has done in other African countries they have visited.

According to him, this will enable the Secretariat effectively integrate all Customs operations in African countries into AfCFTA implementation if they were to meet the target set by the African Heads of states that trade within the African continent should double by 2035.

He further disclosed that there are three annexes that are critical to the successful implementation of the trade agreement.

These include trade facilitation, Customs procedures and transit of goods.

He said that is the reason why the involvement of the customs authorities in the continent is vital to the success of AfCFTA.

The AfCFTA scribe, therefore, congratulated Nigeria for its invaluable contributions to the continental trade agreement.

”I congratulate Nigeria for being an active participant in the rule of origin negotiations as well as the Heads of Customs authorities.

”We value your contributions to AfCFTA. We need your experience and expertise for the successful implementation of the trade agreement” he declared.

 

 

 

 

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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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