Comptroller Frank Onyeka.

The Area Controller of the Nigeria Customs Service NCS, Tin Can Island Port Command, Comptroller Frank Onyeka has said that the B’Odogwu platform remains a crucial element in the ongoing adoption of home- grown technology for the modernisation of Nigeria’s Customs administration.

He also observed that the platform has made tremendous impacts in simplifying trade processes within a very short time, given that it is being driven and sustained through focused and purposeful leadership.

Recall that the Comptroller General of Customs CGC, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR had in March this year, announced the deployment of the “B’Odogwu” platform in the Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports both in Lagos. This followed the successful trial pilot phase at the Port Terminal and Multi-Service Limited PTML Command in the last quarter of 2024.

Comptroller Onyeka, who spoke during an interaction with the media in Apapa, lauded the CGC for providing the purposeful leadership that drives the execution of the B’Odogwu initiative, noting that it is about the biggest technological independence in customs administration in the continent.

He pledged that the Tin Can Island Customs Command is on course with the partial deployment of the platform, noting that all things being equal, the full implementation will come very soon, as all the processes and resources designed to operationalise the platform are already in place.

“Though B’Odogwu is a big deal given its relative, recent history, the platform remains central to simplification of trade processes and lawful trade facilitation to the extent that both importers and their clearing agents, together with officers of the Command remain united in ensuring that its success is collective and is treated as a critical national asset.

“You will all agree with me that B’Odogwu is phenomenal in the sense that it is our own home grown technology. In Africa l think it is the biggest deal in customs administration with our amiable CGC Adeniyi providing focused leadership and as the driving force.

“He dreamed it, believed in it and rallied the service and stakeholders to key into it and you will agree with me that the pilot scheme at PTML was an extraordinary turning point. So coming back to Tin-Can, l can tell you for free that we are on course, remember that B’Odogwu is just a platform, the expected efficiency is dependent on other variables plus honest declaration.

“B’Odogwu is impartial and cold as the wheel of justice, it treats entries mechanically and as accurately as what is fed to it, so to facilitate trade and expect efficiency, importers and clearing agents must feed B’Odogwu with true and honest entries so that it does not fault documentations which will logically cause for fresh lodgment with its associated delays.

“It has been so far, so good, remember that during a pre-launch stakeholders’ engagement at the Apapa Command, the CGC stated that it was a pre-launch and not a final launch. This is because Tin-Can port is a much bigger operational port. Hopefully, few months from now, B’Odogwu will become fully operational here as well”, Onyeka said.

The Tin Can Customs- boss, who announced that he and his management team have activated the right processes to enthrone an era of compliance without impeding trade, also said his overall target is to achieve the much desired trade compliance by importers and their freight forwarders, noting that trade compliance alone is key to the success of both B’Odogwu and the other customs statutory mandate, including revenue generation and enforcement.

Speaking on the B’Odogwu Clearance System, Onyeka not only urged the stakeholders to prepare themselves seriously for the full launch of the scheme in the command, but since the pre-launch, have continued to explain that every reform is designed to create a more trade friendly environment for all port users.

This is also exemplified in the steady increase in revenue generation, and the assurance that under his watch, the Command revenue target of N1.524 trillion for 2025 is realized, all things being equal.

The Comptroller, who also spoke on the Command’s revenue performance, disclosed that out of a total of N1.524trillion revenue target for the 2025 fiscal year, the Command has collected the sum of ₦347.9billion for the first quarter, (January- March) 2025. The figure represents 12.6per cent growth compared to the ₦304billion collected in the corresponding period of last year.

Details of the revenue collection for January 2025 stood at ₦116.4billion representing 24.06per cent increase compared to ₦88.4billion collected in the corresponding period of 2024, in February of 2025, the commanded collected ₦103.2billion, which was also 2.90 per cent higher than the sum of ₦100.2billion collected in the corresponding period of 2024.

In March 2025 a total of ₦128.3billion was collected, which is 10.3per cent higher than the ₦115.1billion higher than that of the corresponding period of 2024.

The TCIP CAC charged the stakeholders, especially importers and their agents to imbibe the tradition of honest and accurate declaration of their consignments, which is the best way of achieving speedy examination and release of cargo to forestall demurrage payments.