Kwara Land Border Yet To Be Opened – Customs Area Controller
…Generates N3.5bn in 1st Quarter, Seizes 23 Items
By Nasir Abdulganiy and Oyewale Oyelola
The Nigeria Customs Service has stated that the federal government is yet to open land border in Kwara State.
The Kwara command of Customs has recorded impressive scorecard in revenue generation, suppression of smuggling and trade facilitation during 2023 first quarter.
The Area Controller COMPT KEHINDE DEHINDE ILESANMI (fnarc) disclosed this on Wednesday while addressing newsmen at Kwara Command Headquarters in Ilorin.
Ilesanmi however implored stakeholders to understand Customs statutory responsibilities for the progress of our dear country, more especially at this time when the land border in Kwara is yet to be opened.
He revealed that the Customs generated N3.5billion from January to March 2023.
According to him, the Command under my watch, from January to March, 2023 (First Quarter 2023) have collected the sum of Three Billion Five Hundred and Sixty-Six Million Nine Hundred and Ninety Seven Thousand Five Hundred and Eighty Seven Naira Twelve Kobo (N 3,566,997,587.12). A comparative analysis with the preceding year 2022 indicates that we have surpasses revenue collected same period last year 2022 with N779,992,680.64.
Speaking further, the Area Controller hinted that the increment in revenue generation was product of familiarization visit to major excise factories in Kwara State.
His words: “The essence was to look into industrial trade facilitation which will ultimately increase production and positively impact revenue generation through total compliance. Today, I make bold to say that the visit is yielding positive results and this is evident in the revenue collected by the Command in the first quarter of this year 2023. These results will be sustained in days ahead.”
Ilesanmi said the command made 23 seizures including 451 bags of foreign rice (50kg), six vehicles, 873 kegs of PMS of 25liters, 23 Bales of secondhand clothing and 1 Motorcycle used in conveying PMS.
He noted that the cumulative Duty Paid Value (DPV) for all the above seizures is N34, 797, 020.00.
“This surpasses the Duty Paid Value (DPV) of seizures made in the first quarter of last year 2022 with Twenty Five Million Six Hundred and Twenty Eight Thousand Five Hundred and Twenty Naira (N 25, 628, 520.00)
However, in line with our extant laws and Standard Operational Procedure (SOP), most of the inflammable products have been auctioned to the members of the public. Journalists also were not left out of the process, and the amount generated as fees has been remitted into the government coffers.” He explained
The Area Controller who takes over the Command in January said the leadership of Nigeria Customs Service under the Comptroller General of Customs Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) remains unrelenting in the bid to continue to foil, frustrate and deplete the activities of economy saboteurs.
He used the opportunity to appreciate Col. Ibrahim Hameed Ali (Rtd) and the management team of Nigeria Customs Service for considering his deployment to the state as the Customs Area Controller Kwara Command.
