The diversification agenda of the Federal Government may be yielding results as export of agricultural produce through the TinCan Island port in Lagos, is on a sharp increase.

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), TinCan Island Command, confirmed yesterday that the exports have gained appreciable improvement of about 558.46 per cent in terms of volume and 402.24 per cent in terms of FOB (Free on Board) value between January and March this year compared to the same period last year.

Controller of the Command, Abdullahi Baba Musa, while updating journalists on the performance report for the period, said the Command recorded about 45,462 metric tonnes of export with FOB value of N29.146billion. This is against the 8,140.6 metric tonnes with FOB value of N7.246billion achieved in the corresponding period of 2017.

He gave the breakdown of the exports as 38,517 metric tonnes of agricultural produce export with FOB value of N22.435billion; and about 6,945 metric tonnes of processed and manufactured goods with FOB value of N6.711billion during the review period.

On the revenue performance, Musa said the Command raked in about N104.5billion as against a projection collection of the sum of N116 billion, recording a performance rate of 90.09 per cent between January and April this year.

“A comparative analysis against collection of the previous year (2017) for the same period in the sum of N82.154billion showed there is an improvement in the figure of about N22.68billion, which is equivalent to an improvement of about 27.61 per cent.

“The improved collection so far has been driven by the establishment of standard operating procedure (SOP) and strong revenue drive achieved through blocking of Areas of revenue leakages,” he stated.

Musa said the TinCan Island Command is committed to the transformation of revenue collection and reporting system with the implementation of MOS II with additional functionality, which is an upgrade of the Nigeria Customs Integrated System (NICIS I).

As part of these, he said the Command is working hard to float a “one stop shop” which will enable treatment of declarations with valuations, classification and other related clearance issues/queries.

“In the meantime the renovation of the space for the one stop shop is in progress. Automation of the Cargo examination and assignment process where examination officers are assigned examination automatically is also in the pipeline to ensure transparency in the inspection process.

“The vehicle Valuation System is being further improved with the attachment of the Valuation Note issued to the SGD in the system, this will enable a quick verification of assessment and duty payment,” he explained.

He added that the command has made several seizures, which included: 1×40 and 1×20 containers of Tramadol Hydrochloride (225mg) which were declared as electrical static converters and ciprofloxacin.

Other seizures are: 3×40 containers of e-waste which are considered toxic to the environment/health; and 5×40 containers of second hand clothing consisting of about 1,239 bales of clothing prohibited under the absolute import prohibition list; 4. 1×40 containers of used tyres as contain in Import Prohibition List for trade.

All the seized items, according to him, have a total duty paid value (DPV) of N124million.

Musa added that efforts have been intensified under the Federal Government’s Presidential Initiative on ease of doing business, to improve on performance rating.