THE Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd.), has disclosed that the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) generates between N1 billion and N1.5billion on a daily basis through various import duties.
Ali stated this on Thursday when he paid a courtesy visit to the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok-EteIbas, at the Naval Headquarters in Abuja.
He said the NCS as presently constituted with limited facilities to carry out its duties, lacks the capacity to generate the needed revenue for the country and will therefore require the assistance of the Nigerian Navy.
Also, the service disclosed that it would re-open the Gamboru and Banke border posts in Maiduguri, Borno State, years after the positions were temporarily abandoned following deadly attacks by Boko Haram.
The Comptroller-General noted that apart from the daily revenue generation, the nation loses billions of naira during most of its numerous public holidays. He said: “Part of our job on trade certification is dependent on the navy, the more we get the more likely our revenue rises.
“Any day we declare public holiday we lose money, in practical terms the customs, our ports generates about N1 billion to N1.5 billion a day, so any day they say public holiday that is N1.5 billion gone. And Nigerians love holidays, if Christmas falls on Saturday we will say we want to have Monday as holiday but to us it’s a pain because we are now looking at it in terms of raw cash.”
Ali lamented that the customs marine command “is depleted and the few ones that are trained have now been retired and we are now in a state that we really need to train these people; which we can only have that from the Navy.
“If you oblige us, there are young talented people that I’m sure they will be trained for them to effectively do their job.”
To this end, Ali said the customs under his leadership was reaching out to their strategic partners in the sector, especially Nigeria Navy, to be able to generate more revenue and provide better services.
The customs boss listed the areas they would need partnership and assistance from the Navy, including running of the two newly acquired marine boats and patrolling the waterside.
Secondly, he said:, “We will ask for the training of our men as we go along, so that we have people that would know exactly what to do when they are in those waters and know exactly what to look for, so that if they see what they are looking for how do they go about arresting the situation.