Customs: Nigeria Loses N356bn Annually to Contraband

By Daji Sani  The Deputy Comptroller of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr. Saka Yunusa Alao, has disclosed that Nigeria loses an estimated N1 billion on contraband rice daily which translates to N356 billion yearly. Alao, who was in Yola on an official visit, revealed this while taking journalists round the contraband storage facility of the Adamawa/Taraba states command. He revealed that the command had made 2,316 seizures of rice alone, whose value was estimated at hundreds of millions of naira this year. He noted that the NCS was determined in ensuring that the federal government’s fiscal policies were implemented religiously in order to safeguard the economy and prevent illegal export to other countries. Alao explained that in order to put an end to the activities of smugglers in the country, the customs had deployed aircrafts to all borders in the country,  adding that policing at border areas has also been intensified. These measures, according to him, were already yielding positive results. He said if rice smuggling alone could be tackled, the country would be able to produce aboutseven millions

jobs in the sector alone. The, he noted, was why the federal government directed that rice should only be imported via the sea. “Though importation of rice into Nigeria is not prohibited, by law, it is restricted from being ferried into the country through land borders,” he said. Alao maintained that the dexterity and determination of the command and its affiliate units led to seizures of rice, soap, second hand clothing’s, vegetable oil, motorcycles and sugar worth hundreds of millions. However, he said the Nigeria Customs had made seized of contraband, which amounted to N636, 222,600 during its operations this year in the Adamawa/Taraba states Command. continued