The acting Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Mr Adewale Adeniyi said Tuesday that the NCS would focus on decongesting the nation’s ports to make them user-friendly and export-led economic development strategy platforms.
The NCS boss said this while briefing State House correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He said officers and men of the NCS would carry out their duties in line with the objectives of the Nigeria Customs Service and the Policy Advisory Document on Customs (PAC).
“I had the opportunity to have very useful discussions and a very constructive engagement with His Excellency, Mr. President. And for all of you that have known him, I’ve worked with him very, very closely. You know that, Mr. President is a very good listener.
“We had discussions regarding what customs can bring to the table, to actualize the vision of renewed hope for Nigeria, what customers can do in terms of addressing gaps in revenue generation in the customs, our enforcement strategies, and, most importantly, the issue of promoting port efficiency and competitiveness of our ports.
“So these are generally the issues that we discussed. And I believe that in the days ahead, we will be prioritizing some of these issues for the benefits of the Nigerian economy.
“In terms of specifics, I am sure that we are all very, very familiar with the Presidential Advisory Council. And there is a document which has been made public. Our discussions centers around aligning the vision of customs, the activities of custom in the short, medium and long terms with those noble objectives set out in the PAC documents.
“So we’re talking about making our ports user friendly, we’re talking about decongesting the ports, we talked about 48 hours clearance of goods around the ports, export led inward looking economic development strategies. So these are some of the issues that we discussed. And I pledged commitment of the customs to bring out reforms and to collaborate with other agencies of government to achieve some of those objectives stated in the PAC documents,” he said.
He said the recent election of the President as chairman of the Economic Community if West African States (ECOWAS) means more work for the Nigeria Customs Service and strong collaboration among countries in the region.
“I came to express gratitude to Mr. President for finding me worthy being appointed the Acting Comptroller General of customs and also to felicitate with him for his recent appointment as the Chairman of ECOWAS.
“For us in the Nigerian Customs Service, ECOWAS represents a very bold attempt to forge regional integration, cooperation in border security and monetary affairs. And it is so good to note that my assumption of Office coincide with that period when attention will be focused on Nigeria holding the flag of regional integration.
“I can also tell you that part of my discussions with Mr. President is to actively engage customs administration’s across our borders, particularly the strategic ones that we must work and collaborate with for us to achieve common objectives of border security and regional integration.
“In the next one week, or thereabout, I will be paying an official visit to Republic of Benin, to have discussions with the Customs Administration of Benin, and see how we can take forward the issue of collaborations between us, the issue of border security, the issue of importation across the border, and more importantly, how we can deploy technological solutions to very complex border problems,” he said.
