By Ambrose Obioma Okehi (News Emperor)
Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), one of the Customs Commands in the Western Zone of Country is back again, functioning and functioning to its full capacity but has come back to life. Courtesy of the newly posted Customs Area Controller (CAC), Comptroller Timi Bomodi who is now a full-fledged CAC and is inchargd of the command.
The now functioning and reactivated KLT Command, in its first quarter report just released to media recently, projected a whopping sum of N10.5 billion during the period.
This amount, according to the command, represents 76.87% of its expected drivable revenue for quarter 1 of 2023 fiscal period.
The Command, according to reports, has been experiencing severe lull in the area of revenue generation, couplled with the current federal government’s monetary policies as well as the impact of the unstable Naira exchange rates which has hampered the overall business environment nationally.
News Emperor however gathered from a reliable source that apart from the fact that the command before the coming on board of the former National Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), also recorded a low down turn over the years and has been on that low volume of imports before the coming of Comptroller Bomodi.
Meanwhile, Comptroller Bomodi in his new approach and strategy to revamp the almost dead and domant command, explained recently that all hands are now on deck, ” to safeguard and protect all the revenue accrable to the Command, from import and export activities”.
To him, “one of the ways of achieving this is by ensuring penalties are paid for every infractions through Debit Note or Demand Notice (DN)”.
On this, he said and acknowledged also that Demand Notices (DN) valued at over N68.5m were raised to shore up the shortfall in revenue generation by the Command.
In his new steps and strategic approaches to plant his feet on the sand of history, Comptroller Bomodi equally has taken a bold step to reinvigorate the Command’s revenue drive by encouraging shipping companies and other critical stakeholders who had hitherto, overlooked the Command as a strategic choice destination for imported cargoes.
On the export, it could be observed that the Command’s export records and proceeds, before now, were poor because KLT was used as a transit hub for exports and has to be improved upon.
However, since the establishment of an Export Processing Terminal all exports procedures have since commenced in the Command with an anticipation of a hike in export activities.
Comptroller Bomodi has also established a Staff Clinic which was recently commissioned.
This has significantly improved, Compteoller Bomodi noted has added to the well-being of the command and the Command’s officers as well.
CAC Bomodi therefore informed that with the commissioning of the new Terminals, coupled with increased cargo allocation,”We are hopeful of a positive turnaround in business activities at the Command.”
