Recently, the Nigeria Customs Service released a statement claiming that the N1,012,259,006,779.74 it has generated this year is the highest ever revenue generated by the Nigerian Customs Service in its history.
This is a lie and is part of the characteristic propaganda that the Buhari administration has become known for.
Part of the Customs’ statement reads as follows:
“NCS has recorded the highest revenue collection ever of N1,012,259,006,779.74 with five more working days to the end of 2017. “The Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), retired Col. Hameed Ali, undertook some strategic measures in terms of restructuring and repositioning the service for efficient service delivery which resulted in this historic revenue figure from the service this year.”
What the Nigerian Customs failed to tell Nigerians is that this amount is less than half what the Nigerian Customs Service generates in 2014 when you factor in the devaluation of the Naira. In 2014, the Nigerian Customs Service generated ?978 billion. When you factor in the official exchange rate in 2014 of 150 Naira to a dollar, that ?978 billion was equivalent to $6.5 billion.
However, when you convert the N1 trillion the Nigerian Customs Service generated in 2017 using the official interbank exchange rate of 365 Naira to one dollar, that N1 trillion is equivalent to $2.7 billion! In other words, the Nigerian Customs Service generated less than half of what it generated in 2014 and this fact cannot be hidden with their infantile propaganda.
Source: News agencies
