Customs Generates N573bn In Five Months

The Nigeria Customs Service on Thursday said it has generated N573,190,265,605.41 as revenue between January and May 2020.

This revelation was made by the Comptroller Accounts, Sadiq Ibrahim Ismailia, when a delegation of the Customs authorities led by the Deputy Comptroller General of Customs (Head, Human Resources), DCG Sanusi Abubakar Umar, had an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Customs in Abuja.

Chairman Senate Committee on Customs, Francis Ailimikhena (Edo North), said the interaction was part of the panel’s oversight activities to assess the 2020 budget performance of the agency, update on recruitment exercise, number of seized goods, number auctioned and the amount realized from the auction if any.

Ismailia, while presenting the budget performance of the agency, said: “From January to May (2020) the performance of the budget is N37, 865, 867, 750 representing 15.90 percent of the (Service’s) budget.

“The target given to the Service in terms of revenue was N1.6 trillion but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the target was reviewed to N957billion. As at January to May (2020) the Service had collected N573, 190, 265, 605.41.”

Ismaila added that the agency has so far spent the sum of N300million on its yet to be concluded recruitment exercise of 3,200 officers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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A member of the Committee, Senator Suleiman Kwari (Kaduna North), sought to know how the agency can claim it has spent N400million for the training of its officers in view of the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions.

He also asked why the Customs has not been returning it unspent funds to the Federal Government’s treasury at the end of successive fiscal years.

Ismaila explained why it was true that no training has taken place during the ongoing lockdown, the amount represented a rollover from January to March 2020.

On the non-return of unspent funds, Umar said: “Customs is now a performance-based agency. We are not a treasury-sponsored agency, which normally makes a return to the treasury any amount not spent. Where we have any shortfall, we don’t have anybody backing us and we cannot borrow from the bank.”

His explanation however did not go down well with the committee members, who said the Service has not recorded any shortfall but has rather exceeded its set target over the years.

Umar said whenever the service wants to implement any project, it always experiences delay from the Bureau of Public Procurement. “Any delay from them costs us a huge delay,” he said.

Senator Francis Fadahunsi (APC, Osun) noted that in the agency’s surplus of 2018, about N34 billion was given back to Customs in 2019 as its own percentage.

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“Where is the surplus of 2019, which should have been given to you is 2020?” he queried, adding that the Service exceeded its target last year up to N1.35 trillion.

Ismaila, in his response, said: “We have put the element of that surplus that we are expecting in the 2020 budget.”

Members of the panel however noted that the Service failed to provide the details of the surplus in the documents submitted to the Committee.

Members of the panel asked the Service to, henceforth, provide the details of the money not spent in previous budgets that it is rolling over to the next year.

The Comptroller, Technical Services of the Customs, Hafiz Kalla, said 28,894 seizures were made by the agency between 2015 and 2020.

Kalla however could not give a detailed breakdown of the seizures the agency has made so far to members of the Committee when he was asked to do so.

The Committee expressed disappointment with the seizures’ report and directed the leader of the delegation, DCG Umar, to inform the Comptroller General of Customs, Hammed Ali, to make further details of the report available to the Committee as soon as possible.