The Murtala Muhammed Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has raked in the sum of N4,991,674,905.00 in the month of September.
This is just as the command in the period under review seized items with duty paid value (DPV) of ₦12,615,743.30.
The items seized included drones of different makes, Walkie-Talkie Radios, Military Armoured Vests, among others.
The figure exceeded the Command’s monthly revenue target with ₦674,171,230.00 translating to 115.6 percent, and also exceeded that of September, 2018 collection of N3,976,291,655.00 with ₦1,015,356,250.00.
The new Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Lena E. Oyama (Mrs) who resumed on August 21st at the airport was able to achieve the feat through the deployment of various strategies which ensured increased compliance.
The command’s Public Relations Officer, Ephraim Haruna, in a statement said the strategies implemented by the comptroller included repositioning of man power; regular stakeholder engagement, regular meetings with principal officers (DC Sheds, Releasing officers, Examination officers, officers in charge of gates, TARMAC and Tally officers).
The command said it has removed bottle necks by decentralizing the clearing process, resulting in trade facilitation.
On the smuggled items, the controller told the public that drones are not allowed into the country without End-User-Certificate (EUC) for security reasons.
