Customs to spend N577m on boreholes, N128m on TVs

The Senate yesterday approved N238bn budget of the Nigeria Customs Service for the 2020 fiscal year. This followed the presentation of the Service 2020’ budget report by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariffs, Francis Alimikhena.

Out of the approved sum, N98bn was voted for personnel cost, N15bn for overhead, and N123bn was approved for capital. Details of the budget showed that N128m was set aside for television sets; and N30m for chairs and tables.

Waste disposal equipment got N3.1bn; scanners, power generating sets, N927mn.

The service will also spend N577m on boreholes and other water facilities; N63 million on the purchase of refrigerators; N173.7m for safe, file cabinets, cupboards and wall clocks while N74m will be spent on photocopiers.


Before the budget was passed, some senators had dismissed the committee report as lacking details and opposed the budget passage. They said despite getting 7% of its revenue as operational cost, the Customs still collected money from the federation account.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan warned that the Senate would take punitive measures against agencies of government that were not up to date with their audited accounts.

Lawan said it was a “sad commentary” that MDAs had not been submitting their audited accounts to the National Assembly, describing the act as unacceptable.