The Nigeria Customs Service has said that poor patronage of ports, shallow canals and insecurity in the South South/South East zone of the service is hampering revenue generation efforts.
Zonal Coordinator in charge of Zone C, Port Harcourt, Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, ACG Sambo Dangaladima, disclosed this while receiving the House Committee on Customs and Excise led by Leke Abejide, on an oversight visit to Customs formation in the zone.
Dangaladima also said poor road network in the zone and concessions on selected food items has also reduced revenue generation efforts in the zone.
The zone comprises the six states in the South South and the five states in the South East and is made up of nine commands and Free Trade Zones.
He said the zone was working with relevant agencies of government to address the issues in the zone, while appealing to the National Assembly to come to the aide of the service to enhance revenue, saying the service was committed to building a robust system that aligns with global best practices.
Other Comptrollers of Customs commands in the Zone corroborated the statement of the Zonal Coordinator.
In his own presentation, Controller of Port Harcourt 1 Command, Mustapha Hashim, said the Command lost N34 Billion in revenue in just five months from August to December 2024 as a result of the concession on selected food items by the federal government.
Read Also: OUTRAGEOUS! Fertility clinics prey on young females in Nigerian varsities to ‘sell’ their eggs
He said in spite of the challenges, the command was able to generate N200 billion in 2024, an increase of about N84 billion over that of 2023, while it has generated about N56.1 billion in the first three months of 2025.
He disclosed that at the moment, the command does not have any container-laden vessel, as the only vessel that used to bring containers to the command once a month has since stopped, while it now depends on bulk cargo.
While stressing the need to dredge the channels, he said the port has the challenge of a shallow channel which cannot even take a shallow draft of about 7.8 meter, adding that the freight differentials between Port Harcourt and Onne has created an unfavaourable patronage for the command.
He said, “The implementation of the Federal Government’s directives of concessions on selected food items affected the revenue generated by the Command, as over N34 billion was lost from August-December 2024.”
Also, the Comptroller of the Akwa Ibom/Cross Rivers Command, Chukwudi Ogbonna, complained about low patronage of the Calabar Port, saying only a few vessels come to the port in Calabar.
The Comptroller in charge of the Edo/Delta Command, Judith Kalu, said even though the Command was able to generate N56. 3 billion in the first three months of the year, the channels in the command are shallow and cannot take bug vessels.
She said that about 65.770 million barrels of crude oil were taken through the command in 2024 and about 91,116 metric tons of LPG.
Chairman of the House Committee on Customs and Excise, Leke Abejide said while the zone is making appreciable progress in revenue generation, there is need to tackle drug smuggling into the country.
He however stressed the need to provide modern scanners for Customs formation to enable them detect illicit items being smuggled in the country.
He lamented that drug smuggling has become a big problem, as all the commands they visited under Zone A Lagos have the same problem of drug seizures, which indicated the seriousness of the problem.