Apapa Customs Sets New National Record with N304bn Revenue Collection in October
The Apapa Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has set a new all-time national revenue record, after declaring a massive N304 billion collection for the month of October 2025 – the highest monthly revenue achieved by any customs command in the history of the Service.
The figure surpasses the previous record of N264 billion which Apapa Command also achieved in October 2024.
With this new milestone, the Command has now collected a total of N2.402 trillion between January and October 2025 – exceeding its full-year 2024 total with two months still left in the year.
Customs Area Controller of Apapa Command, Comptroller Emmanuel Oshoba, described the performance as “the beginning of greater revenue exploits” under his leadership.
“It is an initial proof of the command’s readiness to process higher volume of trade, which will translate to greater collection for government,” Oshoba stated, praising both officers and industry stakeholders for their role in achieving the feat.
Oshoba disclosed that Apapa Port is preparing for a new era of rapid cargo processing through Drive Through Scanning – an infrastructure that, when fully deployed, will process an average of 150 containers per hour directly from the quayside.
According to him, this will be “revolutionary in the annals of trade facilitation in any West African port”.
He said officers and men of the Command had already been sensitised and trained for the new regime, noting also that newly promoted Deputy and Assistant Comptrollers had undergone in-house training to equip them for advanced roles.
All of these, he noted, are in line with the push by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, to position Customs operations for trade-friendly, high-capacity, automated service delivery.
The customs boss said Apapa Command remains uncompromising when it comes to revenue protection, particularly in enforcing demand notices and blocking attempts to short-change government through misapplication of duty codes.
“We have a zero-compromise stance in the application of demand notices (DN) for the recovery of uncovered shortfalls in revenue and my officers are very vigilant checking any attempt to misapply Harmonised System (HS) Code for duty evasion,” he said.
Oshoba also reiterated that the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) platform – which harmonises all Customs procedures in one place – is being actively deployed in the Command to promote efficiency, minimise delays and accelerate clearance time.
The CAC noted that efficient movement of already-cleared cargo out of the port is a key determinant of how quickly new cargoes can be processed – and by extension, how much revenue can be generated.
To that effect, he revealed that he had paid unannounced visits to port access roads, engaging truckers, freight forwarders and licensed customs agents on the need to support the Nigerian Ports Authority’s (NPA) traffic management architecture.
Oshoba also met with the Port Manager to strengthen collaboration on improving cargo exit efficiency.
“If cleared consignments fail to exit, new ones coming for examination or scanning would be slowed down and this affects trade directly while impeding on the NCS revenue collection and trade facilitation mandates,” he warned.
While celebrating the N304 billion record, Comptroller Oshoba emphasised that the Command is not resting on its oars.
“For this revenue collection milestone, I commend my officers and our compliant stakeholders – but it’s not our final destination. We need the support of everyone to consolidate and build on these achievements. We are ready to do better,” he said.
