THE 1.1 TRILLION NAIRA HULLABALOO AND THE CELEBRATION OF MEDIOCRITY.
As I write this I am faced with a social media advert with the caption
“ Hameed Ali’s Winning Team Season 1”. It reads
For the first time in the history of the over 100 years history of the Nigeria Customs Service, whooping N1.1 Trillion was generated into government coffers by Hameed Ali led customs …….. blabla bla.
I will first of all want to congratulate Col Hameed Ali retd. For succeeding at all as a CGC of Customs being a former Military colonel with no experience in customs related matters. I must also commend his efforts at revamping the service and others. That being said I would like to state here that this celebration is at best mediocre and shouldn’t be mentioned even as an achievement by a government who said they want to bring change.
Nigeria customs service is a unique service with great achievements over the years; it is the most ICT compliant parastatal of the FGN. Its ICT infrastructure is second to none in any Federal government Parastatal in Nigeria. It uses UNTCAD ASYCUDA as it software to automate the clearing procedure generally.
Automated System for Customs Data ASYCUDA is user-defined computer application software designed by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNTCAD for the purpose of aiding the administration and management of Import and Export Procedures at the Sea and AirPorts of any nation.
ASYCUDA was introduced to Nigeria Customs Service Operations in 1998 using a pivot system of implementation as APAPAWharf being the first to be installed, tested and implemented. ASYCUDA 2.7 was later implemented at the Sea and Air ports across the nation. In the year 2003, an update – ASYCUDA 3.0 - popularly known as ASYCUDA ++ was also put in place in order to enhance its performances and purposes. Presently ASYCUDA++ runs in all the Sea and AirPorts and all the Bonded Warehouses in Nigeria. The package is being managed and implemented by WEBB FONTAINE. This automation has also brought about a great increase in revenue generated over the years.
Back to the revenue generated from 2011 till 2014, according to premium times https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/168631-nigeria-customs-generates-n3-trillion-in-4-years.html
The Nigeria customs generated the following
2011 N 741.8 billion @ importation rate of 120USD per Naira
2012 N850.5 Billion @ importation rate of 120USD per Naira
2013 N 833.4 Billion @ importation rate of 120USD per Naira
2014 N 977.09 Billion @ importation rate of 120USD per Naira

I haven’t added 2015 because during the period till now we have experienced a change in Government and would love to do that analysis some other time.
Now customs taxes are calculated based on prices of the goods FOB, insurance and Transportation cost (Freight), in customs parlance it called CIF. The taxes rates are based on the USD value of the goods converted to naira based on the prevalent exchange rate of the time. So what this simply means is that for every good imported into the country taxes are collected by customs based on the dollar value of CIF converted to naira. In other words, the real revenue generated is simply a reflection of the exchange rate of that time not the supposed naira value as we know.
Let me explain

In 2011 customs generated N 741.8 billion @ 120 naira per USD
This means the USD value of what customs generated was 741.8/120 Billion
6.18166667 Billion USD
Similarly other years
2012 N850.5 Billion @ importation rate of 120USD per Naira is 7.0875 Billion USD
2013 N 833.4 Billion @ importation rate of 120USD per Naira is 6.945 Billion USD
2014 N 977.09 Billion @ importation rate of 120USD per Naira is 8.1424167 Billion USD
2017 N1.1 trillion @ importation rate of 306.5 USD per Naira is 3.59477124 Billion USD

It good to celebrate but not mediocrity, as you can in figures it look like the highest but in reality it is one of the lowest, please I don’t even want to compare it with 2016 when exchange rate shot up from 285 to 306 and above before stabilizing at 306. I heard this was mentioned as one of the achievements, please somebody should understand this is mediocrity.


Thanks

Someone forgot to update the exchange rate factor, in the software...!

There's no way forward under a government headed by APC.

And to think I have customs officers jubilating about this made me wonder what we are doing as a country. The prices of an 32 " LEd Tv in 2014 was 40k to 50k depending on brand and quality, now it between 55k to 80k, what this means is that when we celebrate this 1.1 trillion know we celebrate this government un- healthy tax regime on the poor masses.

Ghost achievement ghost figures. Dead workers. Buried administration