Customs hits N120bn revenue surge with B’Odogwu, begins pre-launch in Apapa command

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has recorded a significant revenue boost and increased efficiency, generating N120 billion revenue in excess and processing 16,000 declarations within three months using its new trade facilitation platform, B’Odogwyu at PTML command.

Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi who disclosed this also announced the pre-launch of the system at Apapa and Tin Can commands.

Speaking during the pre-launch engagement with stakeholders at Apapa Command in Lagos on Monday, Adeniyi said the successes were recorded despite the initial challenges and attempts by previous service provider, Webb Fontaine to frustrate the system after the expiration of its contract.

He said having surmounted the teething challenges faced at the pilot phase in PTML, the Service is more confident and ready to deploy the platform to the two biggest Customs commands in Lagos.

He emphasized the B’Odogwyu platform’s superior performance compared to the previous NICIS server, citing faster processing speeds, enhanced efficiency, and greater capacity.

Adeniyi emphasized the NCS’s commitment to a seamless rollout of the platform, noting the establishment of a support office at Apapa command to assist stakeholders with processing issues.

He also announced the integration of Form M and PAAR which was not initially implemented at PTML as all Authorised Dealer Banks have now signed up to participate in the process, ensuring a more comprehensive system.

“We have learned very useful lessons from the pilot that we had in PTML. Now we are in the main place, and we want to ensure that the implementation will be seamless moving forward. And this is why we’ve taken it upon ourselves this Monday morning.

“Like I said, we did not roll out the integration of Form M and PAAR in PTML. Now we have gotten to a point where all the banks have signed up, and they are going to be working with us as we roll out, so that PAAR and Form M will be part of what we are going to be doing in Apapa. And once we capture that, we can conveniently say that we have captured almost 70-80% of our operations.

“I’m also happy to observe that as I entered inside Apapa, inside the CPC, the first facility I saw was the support office. That office is going to give support to stakeholders when they have issues with their processing.

” In PTML, within three months, over 16,000 declarations were processed, and we had revenue in excess of 120 billion. So we are very, very optimistic that our revenue will increase. The end game for us is actually not the revenue.
The intention is more about seamless processes of declaration, trade facilitation, and that’s what we got our award for in 2024. We want to make sure that our system is robust enough to address issues raised by our stakeholders.

“And once we do all of that, revenue will follow, and we are very sure that we are going to get more revenue than we did even in 2024..

Adeniyi also addressed concerns about potential challenges, particularly regarding connectivity and server down time of the platform.

He said, “Conectivity is very, very central to what we are doing. We are taking the best hands in the country in terms of connectivity to drive what we are going to be doing on B’Odogwu.

“We’re also going to have Plan B in case the connectivity fails. We are not hiding the fact that there might be glitches, however, when they happens the most important thing is that we are going to put in place contingency plans to help us to address the issues of glitches when they happen.”

Deputy Comptroller General of Customs in charge of ICT and Modernization, Kikelomo Adeola in her remarks noted the platform’s reliability, stating that the Service had not experience one minute down time of B’Odogwu since it’s launch at PTML.

Earlier in his welcome address, Controller, Apapa command, Comptroller Babatunde Olomu pledged the command’s readiness and commitment to deploy the B’Odogwu platform as a team of officers have been trained to drive the project.

“As the premiere port command, we are ready for the next level of the customs modernization agenda, which seeks to improve users experience, promote efficiency and attain excellenxe in Customs’ productivity.” he said.