Planned Protest Against Customs Modernisation Project Fails

A secretly planned protest targeted at the Customs Modernisation Project has reportedly hit a brick wall.

The planned protest was reportedly aimed at disrupting the project which is focused on reforming the Nigeria Customs Service and extending the focus of the Comptroller General of Customs to weed out corruption in the process, will have a major contribution to the revenue drive of the Federal Government.

Some of the gains from the project will be accurate determination of customs duties, full remittance of revenue to government and increase in business activities for clearing and forwarding agents, who are a critical stakeholder.

Upon investigation, it was gathered that some officers expressed concerns over their job security, as sizable number of officers are not computer literate, leading to sponsoring the planned protest.

You will recall that the Comptroller General of Customs during the signing of the Concession Agreement expressed optimism about the project and also mentioned that all Customs Officers will be computer literate as result of the project, in addition to the fact that no officer sill be sacked, but rather, the Service at 15,000 personnel, is just operating at half of the total required personnel at current operation levels.

The concession agreement, signed May 30, 2022, according to the Managing Director of the Trade Modernization Project, Dr Jummai Umar-Ajijola, is expected to generate a revenue target of $176 billion for the Federal Government will be achieved, if not surpassed.

“The major advantage of the project is the significant growth in the revenue profile of the Federal Government. The project will generate in excess of $176 billion to the Federal Government over the life of the concession.

“The project will bring Nigeria at par with the rest of the word in the deployment of technology to facilitate international trade.

“The economic diversification activities of the Federal Government will receive a strong boost by providing further ease of cross-border trading,” Dr Umar-Ajijola said.