Story by Dili Utomi.
The zonal coordinator, Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service, Assistant Comptroller General of Customs A.M Aremu earlier today commissioned the Hameed Ali Staff clinic within the premises of the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Apapa Lagos.
ACG Aremu while commissioning the clinic praised the Customs Area Controller of the Command, the newly promoted and soon to be moving acting ACG Hammi Swomen for his vision of a healthy collection of personnel and as part of the fulfillment of the Corporate Social Responsibility of the Command through the provision of medical facility for all users of the Command. She also urged Controllers of other Commands to emulate CAC Swomen.
The zonal coordinator as well as CAC Swomen went through quick medical check up as a way of testing the functionality and readiness of the clinic as they were given the results of the checks.
ACG Aremu fielded questions from journalists after the commissioning and emphasized the need for continuos facilitation of legitimate trade and the promotion of the ease of doing business. She also said that the provision of the clinic is part of the plan to continue to ensure a healthy collection of the workforce.
Meanwhile, CAC Swomen in a press briefing after the commissioning of the clinic announced that the Command collected a total amount of Forty Four Billion, Thirty Six Million Naira (#34,036,000,000.00) only as revenue for the year 2022. The figure represents a 21% increase over the 2021 figure of Thirty Six Billion, Sixty Nine Million Naira (#36,069,000,000.00) only. This, he said was inspite of the negative effects resulting from several factors such as the Russian/Ukraine war, the perrenial traffic congestion issues around the Ports access areas, reduction in the volume of imported cargoes and of course the obvious fact that the Command neither has its own premises nor direct access to berthed ships as it is usually fed by other Ports Commands like the Apapa, Tin Can and the PTML Ports Commands.
CAC Swomen who is moving to the Customs headquarters as an ACG Excise/FTZ/1.1 also detailed that there were nine (9) seizures of 29×40 ft containers and 3×20 ft containers of assorted items with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of Seven Hundred and Thirty Seven Million, Five Hundred and Seventy Eight Thousand, Nine Hundred and Thirty Nine Naira (#737,578,939.00) only.
In addition to the above achievements, the area controller also said that the number of bonded terminals under the Command increased by three, these are Bestaf, Tenzik and Sundial, and the establishment of a dispute resolution committee (DRC) comprising of officers from different units and the creation of of a harmonious working relationship with all stakeholders among others.
The CAC while fielding questions from journalists added that they have also aggressively pursued honest declaration of cargoes by freight forwarders leading to the results as shown in the figures. He said that though the Command is handicapped by certain physical and logistical limitations, the Command is doing its utmost best under the circumstances. He also chipped in that they received the very first vessel directly into the Command since its history in November of 2022 at one of its terminals named the Bestaf terminal and that the terminal will aslo start handling export processing from there soon.
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