COMPT ANANI: CATCHING UP WITH THE TRENDS; DELIVERING ON THE CG’S MANDATE @ PTML
By Timothy Paul Okorocha
Late last year, the baton of leadership changed at the Ports Terminal Multiservices Limited (PTML), as Compt Daniyan and now retired Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) handed over to a younger officer, Compt Joe Anani, who came in at a time the B’Odogwu system, piloted by the command was bearing fruits in terms of associated revenue profile.
Few industry operators were skeptical on the new roadmap of the command following Daniyan’s exit, but like it is usual in this present customs management, it has always chosen officers with track records to manage sensitive commands nationwide.
According to those who have superintended the PTML, it remains the most difficult to administer, according to retired DCG Okun who was also PTML’s Area Controller at a time.
Compt Joe Anani never kept anyone in doubt he was going to be the proverbial round peg in a round hole and he literally set out at dawn to chart his course.
Few months later, he has instituted strategies which aimed at consolidating on the rock solid feats recorded in the command under the previous Area controllers.
Since his assumption of office, he set sail to plugging revenue leakages, doubling down on anti-smuggling operations, ensuring genuine trade facilitation, while improving workers’ welfare.
Focused on shoring up the command’s revenue, Anani said the command was determined to collect required revenue, and pledged not to endanger trade.
Taking off in this new year, he has raked in mouth-watering revenue of almost N46 billion for January, while as at the first seventeen days of this February, more than N16 billion has rolled in.
Compt Anani was of the view that dutiable items are charged appropriately to nip issues of underpayment in the bud.
To prove the seriousness he attaches to revenue generation, he announced a N424.5 billion for the command between January and December 2025, a N62 billion in excess of that of 2024.
Gradually winning the hearts of importers and clearing agents, the PTML is now being seen as by all as a ‘friendly port command’ having outlived its perennial crises it hitherto was associated with.
A comparative analysis of its revenue performance has always shown a steady increase in collection, even in the midst of the challenges posed by the B’Odogwu platform which is overcoming.
On the anti-smuggling front, Anani has shown wits, intercepting very dangerous drugs injurious to health. A 1×20 ft container falsely declared as supermarket items was found to contain pharmaceutical drugs upon a 100 per cent examination.
Under Compt Anani, the command is not resting on its oars in the fight against arms smuggling; A WE tactical made -in-Taiwan Airsoft pistol, 2 magazines and 12 rounds of live ammunition.
Not shying away from inter-agency collaboration, and in line with the collaboration and policy thrust of the Customs Comptroller General, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, PhD, several seized containerised pharmaceuticals were handed over to the NAFDAC for regulatory action.
‘Our anti-smuggling and enforcement drive remains intact without compromise’ He warned that stakeholders must stay on the path of obedience to the law, as according to him, compliance saves time, money, and helps in building reputation for business growth towards migration into the AEO status.
Just last month, the Area Controller handed over several arms seizures to the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons.
They include; 5 pistols of different makes, one Crossman Pump Master rifle, 132 Remington live Cartridges, 51 9mm Luger live ammunition, 40 9mm, NIMFC 30-30 blank and hollow ammunitions and 118 9mm empty shells.
Compt Anani attributed these seizures to the fall out of the collective due diligence of the command with other sister agencies.
He declared, upon assumption of office that the PTML remains a no-go area for unlawful trade under any guise, believing in the unshaken commitment to implement the revised Kyoto Convention- a WCO instrument for trade facilitation, while using available manpower to exercise the required control for import and export trade.
He deposed that with the Customs modernization project which started at the PTML command, the Unified Customs Management System (UCMS), also known as B’Odogwu has continued to raise the bar of productivity, noting that more technology will be procured as part of the modernization project and capacity to detect concealments, such as arms and drugs.