Nigerian customs rakes in N5bn daily since border closure - Customs boss, Hammed Ali

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali, on Wednesday, October 3rd told the National Assembly members that the agency had been raking in between N4.7bn and N5.8bn since the Federal Government closed the nation’s borders.  

Ali stated this 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.

The development came just as the joint panel summoned the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and the Controller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Muhammed Babandede, to appear before it on Thursday.  

The heads of the two agencies are expected to brief the joint panel on the MTEF/FSP documents. The NCS boss had while addressing the lawmakers said the land border closure was a blessing to the nation.

He said, “When we closed the border, my fear was that our revenue was going to drop. To be honest, our revenue kept increasing. There was a day in September that we collected N9.2bn in one day. It had never happened before.  

“This was after the closure of the border and since then, we have maintained an average of about N4.7bn to N5.8bn on a daily basis which is far more than we used to collect.”