- DON’T LOSE SLEEP OVER HOW I MEET MY REVENUE TARGETS; I AM A STRATEGIST —- OLOYEDE
***Says his arrival signaled a new dawn in the overall performance of TinCan Command
*** As the Command achieves 20.18% increase from that of first quarter of 2021
By Mcanthony Onuoha
The Customs Area Controller, TinCan Command, Comptroller AAS Oloyede, has expressed his commitment to a renewed enthusiasm in areas of discipline,trade facilitation and revenue drive devoid of extortionist tendencies at the Command.
Oloyede made the assurance at his maiden press briefing having assumed office as the Command’s Area Controller about seven weeks ago.
The CAC pointed out that his assumption coincided with the mass protest by the freight forwarders following the development of the VIN Valuation platform aimed at harmonization of value across board and also for security reasons, despite that, managed the situation leveraging on a comparative advantage of his active participation in the formulation and eventual deployment of the module, and that he said, aided in normalizing activities.
According to Oloyede, “TinCan Island Port Command’s Operation for the first quarter, that is, January- March 2022, significantly aligned with the statutory responsibilities of the service in areas of Revenue Generation, Trade Facilitation and Enforcement/Anti Smuggling activities. In addition to the above, my mandate also included putting modalities in place to boost export and increase revenue through the use of risk management mechanisms in identifying areas of leakages with a view to blocking them. It is also instructive to note that the Command’s Operations drew inspiration from the theme of the International Customs Day, “Scaling up Customs digital transformation by embracing a data culture and building a data Ecosystem”.
” The Command continues to leverage on this theme to harness such facilities that have been made available on the NICIS 11 platform such as the Pre- Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), Advance Manifest, Selectivity Engine and data analysis which to a large extent enhanced our Risk Management Processes culminating into Trade Facilitation, expedited Customs processes and ensuring the collection of appropriate duties and taxes.”
On Revenue Generation, the Command disclosed that there has been significant increase as the Oloyede’s administration leaped over the figure recorded in the first quarter (January-March 2021) as it achieved 20.18% increase. ” TinCan Island Port Command achieved a Revenue Collection of One Hundred and Thirty- Five Billion, Four Hundred and Forty-Three Million,Two Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand,Two Hundred and Eighty-Three Naira and Thirty One Kobo (N135,445,223,283.31). This is an improvement of Twenty- Two Billion, Seven Hundred and Forty-Seven Million,Five Hundred and Thirty Thousand,One Hundred and Twenty-four Naira and Sixty- Five Kobo(N22,747,530,124.65) only, translating to 20.18% increase from the first quarter 2021 collection of One Hundred and Twelve Billion,Six Hundred and Ninety-Five Million,Six Hundred and Ninety-Three Thousand,One Hundred and Fifty- Eight Naira, Sixty Kobo(N112,695,693,158.66).
On Export, the CAC disclosed that the total tonnage of goods exported through TinCan Island Port for the period under review (January-March 2022) is Seventy-One Thousand and Fourteen Metric Tonnes (71,014.4 MT) with a total FOB Value of Fifty-Six Billion,Two Hundred and Five Million,Nine Hundred and One Thousand, Two Hundred and Ninety-Five Naira(N56,206,901,295.00) while in the preceding year January-March 2021, the total tonnage of goods exported through the command was Forty-Four Thousand,Five Hundred and Two Metric Tonnes (44,502.9MT) with a total FOB value of Thirty-One Billion, Three Hundred and Seventy-One Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand,Nine Hundred and Fifty-Four Naira(N31,371,825,954.00).
According to Oloyede, “Comparatively, between January to March and 2022, the tonnage of goods exported through the Command increased from 44,502.9 Metric Tons to 71,014 representing an increase of 62.67%. The FOB value in Naira of the above mentioned tonnage also increased from N31,371,825,954.00 to N56,205,901,295.00 representing an increase of 55.82% within the period under review. Commodities exported through the Command includes the following,copper Ingots, Stainless Steel Ingots, Sesame Seeds,Cashew Nuts,Cocoa Beans, Rubber,Cocoa Butter, Leather,Ginger, Frozen Shrimps etc.”
On Enforcement/Anti Smuggling activities, the Area Controller and his team took journalists to sight recent seizures made by his Command which includes 145Kg of Colorado (Indian hemp) concealed in 2 units of Ridgeline trucks and 2 units of Toyota Corolla vehicles, 206,000 pieces of machetes, 640 bales of used clothes,236,500 pieces of used shoes,62,500 pieces of new lady’s shoes,1,670,400 pieces of chloroquine injections (5mg/5ml), 1,814,400 pieces of Novalgen injection (500mg/5ml), 48,850 rolls of cigarettes and 23,800 tins of sodium bromate and baking powder. The import of these products contravenes Sections 46,47&161 of the Customs & Excise Management Act(CEMA) Cap 45 LFN 2004 with total Duty Paid Value of N1,048,810,569.00.
When asked of the efforts he was making to unravel the mystery behind the 19 containers that left TinCan Port but allegedly got missing en- route to Clarion Bonded Terminal on transire, he said that he has set up a panel to thoroughly investigate the matter and report back within two weeks. He assured that the secret behind the purported disappearance of the said containers would be unraveled if at all it really happened.
When asked how he would meet the staggering figure given to the Command as target, Comptroller Oloyede confidently allayed the fears bugging the minds of his audience reminding them that he was a strategist when it comes to Generation of Revenue and administration. In his words, ” You don’t need to bother yourselves about that, l am a strategist, when it comes to Generation of revenue, l know how to achieve it”, he assured .
