Customs CG Tours Lekki Port, Environs

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

The Ag. Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR, has express the readiness of the service to continue to encourage compliant importers and clearing agents, during a visit to Lagos Free Trade Zone Area Command and its environs as part of his familiarization visit to zone A.

He kicked off with the Lagos Free Trade Zone Area Command, where he was received by the Area Controller, Dorathy Yisa-Omogbehin, where he stated that the free trade zone concept holds a lot of benefits for the country.

This is even as he urged officers and men of the command to collaborate with investors for trade facilitation through compliance, which can be achieved only through integrity and transparency.

“In service provision, we must ensure we are at our best in service delivery. I will also encourage you to collaborate with our investors, support those that are compliant, report and apply sanctions to those that are not.

“Our officers must cultivate a high sense of integrity and transparency in what you do. The concept of free zone promises the country many benefits, in terms of foreign investment, provision of jobs, creating foreign exchange and of course transfer of skills and technology to Nigeria”.

Highlighting the command’s activities, the Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Dorathy Yisa-Omogbehin, cited accommodation as one of the significant challenges of the Command. She also stated that the Command has generated over N27billion this year.

“The most challenging thing is accommodation, we have a lot of work to do here, but we lack accommodation. We have to send some of our officers to town. If we must do our work well, the officers must be around”, she stated.

“In terms of revenue, this year, we have generated N27.5 billion, we have also issued demand notice, and our intervention stands at N1. 2 billion this year”, she noted.

The Ag. CGC who also visited the headquarters of the Lagos Free Zone, Lekki Port and Lekki Free Zone Development Company, where he was received with a warm reception by the Chief Executive Officers and management of the organisations as well as representatives of sister agencies and stakeholders, assured of the services’ support to facilitate and boost trade in Nigeria while also urging sister agencies to continue to collaborate with customs officers to ensure unimpeded facilitation of trade.

“As a responsible agency of government, we want to pledge our support and as a deliberate strategy, I want to let you know that I will be open to regular dialogue with you so that those prayers you talked about, we will be able to surmount them.

“There is still a lot of misunderstanding about the operation and concept of the free trade zone in Nigeria, so you do have the responsibility to promote a better understanding, not just customs but also agencies of government that are involved in the administration and management”, he added.