Operations of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) in Adamawa and Taraba states are hampered by inadequate manpower and bad roads across the two states.
The Adamawa/Taraba Zonal Controller of Customs, Comptroller Karmadeen Olumoh, who disclosed this to newsmen at the Zonal headquarters of the service in Yola on Tuesday, also mentioned low trade between Nigeria and Cameroon as constituting a major obstacles to revenue generation efforts.
The two states making up the zonal command, especially Adamawa, have extensive borderlines with Cameroon.
“Inadequate number of officers to patrol the vast borderline of the command remain a major obstacle, considering the fact that the command boasts of the most expansive in the country consisting Adamawa and Taraba states,” the Customs zonal controller said.
He added, however, that “the ongoing recruitment into the service will go a long way in boosting the staff strength of the command.”
Karmadeen Olumoh who presented what he described as a progress report on activities of the Adamawa/Taraba Customs Command, said the command had done better so far this year in revenue generation despite its challenges, disclosing that it had between January and July generated N105,945,138.44.
“This figure represents a 44.66% increase over the corresponding period of the previous year,” he explained, adding that the revenue target for the seven months of the year under review is N86.72 million.
He announced that the area command, in pursuit of its anti-smuggling charge, had so far this year seized 2,527 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice, 12 motor vehicles, 22 motorcycles, 240 bales of secondhand clothes, 53 drums of petrol totaling 11,960 litres, cartons of spaghetti, elephant tusks, bufallo horns, used tyres and tricycles.
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