The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said it achieved a significant milestone by recording a total revenue collection of N3,206,603,417,315.47 in 2023 fiscal year, a 21.4 percent increase from the preceding year’s total revenue of N2,641,616,673,501.83.
The year’s collection is less than the N3.684 trillion revenue target for the service.
Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, who made the announcement on Wednesday, said the consecutive expansion in revenue underscores the service’s sustained efforts in optimising revenue collection for the federal government and “exemplifies our ability to adapt to dynamic economic conditions.”
Operational challenges such as lower transaction volumes, compliance issues, inadequate infrastructure, and capacity gaps were compounded by delays in policy implementation and socio-political factors.
The anxiety associated with a major election year, the prolonged cash crunch linked to the introduction of higher denominations of the new Naira bills are some of the factors Adeniyi said temporarily impacted purchasing power, closure of Nigeria’s northern borders with Niger Republic and other economic complexities in 2023.
According to him, the challenges led to a revenue shortfall of N532 billion in the first half of the year, falling short of the projected revenue target of N1.84 trillion.
Adeniyi who was appointed in July of 2023 said the service recorded a significant shift in the second half of the year to exceed monthly revenue targets by 6.71 percent for the first time in 2023.
Monthly revenue collection for the latter half of the year averaged N332.9 billion, he said.
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