Lagos Govt To Partner Customs On Ports Turnaround

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said his administration will partner with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to ensure turnaround for the ports in the state to be globally competitive and make Lagos a top destination for West African countries.

The governor  who spoke yesterday when the acting comptroller-general of NCS, Adewale Adeniyi, paid him a courtesy visit at the Lagos House, Marina,  restated his government’s commitment to construct a new port in the Badagry axis of the state to decongest Apapa and Tincan Island Ports and bring in more investors into the state,

He said the state government is already in touch with a contractor for the construction of the Badagry Port.

He said, “I want to assure you that Lagos and Lagosians will continue to give you hospitality; a place of comfort and a willing environment where business can thrive, where officers can do their work without fear or favour, and where service can be rendered to our citizens, your customers, and the international community at large.

“We will continue to work together. And because of where we are as a country and the need to increase our export, foreign currency and ensure that we are not a mono-product country that relies only on oil, we will encourage our manufacturers to export so that they can drive more foreign direct investment and foreign currency that can help to improve our currency.”

On the state’s government plan to construct Badagry Port as an additional port to the existing Apapa, Tincan Island, and Lekki ports,  Sanwo-Olu said “The whole idea is to build strategic infrastructure for our citizens. Lekki is on the Eastern part and Badagry on the Western part so that we can decongest Apapa and Tin Can which we have stretched beyond their capacities.

Earlier,  Adeniyi, who lauded the giant strides of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration, said Lagos as the economic nerve centre of Nigeria, generates 70 to 75 percent of custom revenue in the country.