We Now Rake In Over N5 Billion Daily— Hameed Ali

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The Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Hameed Ali, has revealed that the service had been making between N4.7bn and N5.8bn daily as a result of the ongoing partial border closure exercise by the Federal Government.
Ali made this known on Wednesday when he appeared before the Senate and House of Representatives joint committees on Finance and National Planning, working on the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.
He said that most cargoes that used to berth in the Benin Republic and later smuggle their goods into the country are now using Nigerian ports.
“When we closed the border, my fear was that our revenue was going to drop. To be honest, our revenue kept increasing,” he said.
“There was a day in September that we collected N9.2 billion in one day. It has never happened before.
“This is after the closure of the border and since then, we have maintained an average of about N4.7 billion to N5.8 billion on a daily basis which is far more than we used to collect.
“What we have discovered is that most of those cargoes that used to go to Benin (Republic) and are then smuggled into Nigeria (now come to us).
“Now that we have closed the border they are forced to bring their goods to either Apapa or Tin Can Island and we have to collect duty on them.
“If that (border closure) would continue, to us, it is a welcome situation. Our revenue has not reduced. As a matter of fact, it is increasing as a result of the closure of the border.
“About 10.2million litres of fuel has now been cut down from what we assume, we have been consuming.”