The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS on Friday revealed that it generated the sum of N1.2tn as revenue for the 2018 fiscal year.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer of NCS, Mr Joseph Attah.

According to the statement, the N1.2tn was an increase of N164.89bn over the 2017 collection of N1.03tn.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (retd.), noted that the revenue collected was the result of various reforms implemented by the service.

The Customs boss opined that the reforms were anchored on a committed pursuit of what was right rather than what is popular by compromising national interest on the altar of individual or group’s interests.

The CG said the reforms helped to block leakages using Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS) II which is an upgrade on NICIS I electronic system

Other reforms, he said, were the strict enforcement of extant guidelines by the Tariff and Trade Department, strategic deployment of manpower, robust stakeholder engagement resulting in increased compliance and increased disposition of officers and men to put national interest above selves.

The seizures include arms, ammunition, over 59 containers of Tramadol and other controlled drugs and 320,709 bags of foreign rice.

The statement read in part, “Though smuggling remains a challenge, the service’s three layers security strategy continues to make smuggling unattractive to the would-be smugglers.

“While the service continues to deal decisively with smugglers, fellow citizens, especially border dwellers and port users are advised to support the NCS by reporting any smuggling activity to the nearest Customs formation.

“Together we can protect our economy and security by joining hands to fight smuggling and ensure that appropriate customs duty is paid on every dutiable import.”