Officials’ Firmness, Regular Stakeholders’ Engagement Earned Rivers Port N242bn Revenue in 2022– Customs

The Onne Port in Rivers state recorded a total revenue of N242 billion in 2022, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Area II Command has disclosed.

Investors King learnt that in 2021, the Onne Port generated N188.7 billion which amounts to an increase of N53.3 billion.

The Nigeria Customs Service has however attributed the impressive development to non-compromise of the standard and regulations of the NCS by the officers, regular stakeholders’ engagement and improved compliance level of the port users.

The Customs Controller of Area II Command, Auwal Mohammed, made this known in a release issued on Sunday.

Mohammed noted that the Command engages the stakeholders of the port on a regular basis, enlightening them on the importance of obeying the regulations guiding import and export of the country.

He appreciated the port users and other stakeholders for their compliance and cooperation.

“Periodic meetings with importers, exporters, terminal operators, licensed customs agents and freight forwarders afforded the command the opportunity of regularly enlightening them on the import and export prohibitions,” he said.

According to Mohammed, the seizures recorded in 2022 as part of the Command’s anti-smuggling measures were done through rigorous physical examination of cargoes.

He highlighted some of the seized items as: machetes imported without end-user certificate, military wears, vegetable oil, whisky, soap, used clothings, used tyres, foreign parboiled rice, tomato paste, used vehicle parts, and other items that are prohibited or their duty payments were not made. 

“Antics by smugglers to conceal prohibited items by hiding them at the end of containers with the hope that customs officers won’t get to the end during examination failed as all such concealments were uncovered and seized,” Mohammed said.

The Customs Controller further revealed that under the Nigeria Export Supervision Scheme (NESS), the Command had an increase of N2.71 billion in export which amounts to over 300 percent increase compared to the N881.01 million in 2021.