The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said, misunderstanding of government policies by traders and importers fuels smuggling and trade infractions in various forms.
This was disclosed by the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, at the the 13th League of Maritime Editors and Publishers (LOMEP) AGM/Seminar, titled, ‘Renewed Hope Agenda: The Place of Nigeria’s Maritime Industry/Challenges of Customs Revenue Generation/Anti-Smuggling Operations,’ held in Lagos.
Adeniyi, who was represented by the Customs Area Controller (CAC), Tin-Can Island port, Compt. Dera Nnadi, stated that, one of the greatest things that lead to smuggling is policies. “In every customs environment all over the world, there are smuggling activities. However, one of the greatest things that lead to smuggling is policies. When people don’t understand policies issued by the government, attempts are made to circumvent them.
“For instance, because the 41 items that were removed from official forex were not banned outright, people resorted to finding ways of bringing them in without actually declaring them in their Form ‘M’. That was smuggling in another form.”
“Also, there are some items that people need but Nigeria does not have the full capacity to produce, and because the government wants to protect local industries, particular buyers are placed on them, but because of the forces of demand and supply, people would want to import them. This is also a form of smuggling,” he added.
Adeniyi, however, explained that, to curb smuggling, the service embarked on enlightenment and advocacy with stakeholders. “To curb these trends, we have embarked on enlightenment, education, and I am happy with opportunities like this to inform Nigerians about some of the things we are doing. The greatest thing we are trying to do is advocacy, capacity building, and as much as possible to improve stakeholder relationships.
“On this note, I appeal that every other stakeholder involved in the clearance process should partner with Nigeria Customs. I am happy to announce that under the Nigeria Customs trade platform, almost every government agency involved in clearance and handling of cargo in our seaports, airports and land borders are hooked up.
“For that reason, the president approved that we introduce a single window programme, and that programme is currently domiciled with the Federal Inland Revenue Service. I believe that by the time it comes fully on board, the challenges of revenue collection and smuggling will be reduced to the barest minimum.”
The Customs boss stated that, trade is synonymous with the growth of any nation, and with Nigeria as a developing nation with limited industrial capacity but a growing population in need of food, accommodation, security and general wellbeing, the importance of revenue generation within Customs administration cannot be overemphasised.
He stated that the current NCS management, thereby, laid a foundation for revenue generation to include exports, believing that revenue from export will ultimately prove the nation’s capacity, growth and industrialisation.
“Today, we are making greater efforts to mitigate, rather than promote the challenges we are having in revenue collection through the seaports, airports and land borders. One of such challenges is the delay in cargo clearance in our ports to the extent that we are yet to attain 24-hour cargo clearance in our ports,” he said.
He listed other challenges to include ‘cargo integrity,’ adding that, since one cannot legislate character, the agency has been progressively reforming and automating its processes since 2006 “because we believe that one of the best ways to eliminate the challenges of delay in our clearing process is to automate.
“As far back as 2022, we have adopted a system that we believe will be a game-changer in our clearing process and revenue generation – the trade maximisation project. This project incorporates the anti-smuggling process in our operations, and we are working assiduously within our budget and the present government to actualise it.
“However, the most recent development that we have adopted to enhance our operations is the NCS Economic Operator – a system by which we guarantee reward for compliant traders to the extent that one can take delivery of one’s cargo with some documents with which it was imported from the country of origin.
“We have notified some key players in the industry who have participated in the precursor to this development – those we call the fast-track beneficiaries, and have updated it to that level. It was launched three months ago,” he pointed out.
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