Lagos — Locally made goods worth N3.6 billion were exported through the Seme borders between January and June, this year, the Nigeria Customs Service has said.

Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Sahabi Abubakar Sadiq disclosed this at the weekend during a media briefing in Lagos.

He said the export section of the command does not yield revenue because of the waiver the federal government granted manufacturers of made in Nigeria products. Such waiver is in form of duty free on the export of the goods which has been on for over 10 years.

He said during the period, the Nigeria Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) collection stood at N17,786.120.34 million.

According to him, trucks of ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) compliant goods worth N4.2 billion were cleared in his command, while revenue loss due to the scheme's concession was N1.2 billion.

He explained that the concession was due to Nigeria's bilateral relationship with other countries.

The ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme is an instrument designed by member states of ECOWAS to facilitate sub-regional trade and integration.

The Command's revenue profile during the period under review was N3, 319,490,578 billion in contrast to N2, 759,359,775 billion it generated during the same period in 2011.

Though this signifies an increase in revenue collection, the N4.2billion half year revenue target was yet to be met by the command, the Comptroller said.

The Command collected N997,585,453.37 million in the month of May, the highest in its recent history on monthly basis.

The Command made 92 seizures with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N46,321,992 million during the period.

According to Comptroller Sadiq, out of the 17 suspects arrested within the period, seven had been convicted by the law courts, while the other cases are at various stages of investigation and prosecution.