Nigerian, Benin customs to address issues of smuggling, insecurity

The Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi, said he would begin a discussion with the Republic of Benin Customs Administration to address the issues of border security, importation across the border, and deployment of technological solutions to address complex border problems.

Adeniyi stated this during a private visit to congratulate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his appointment as the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Tuesday.

Adeniyi expressed optimism that Tinubu’s chairmanship of ECOWAS would promote regional integration, cooperation, border security and coordinated monetary frameworks.

According to him, part of the discussions with the President was to actively engage customs administrations across the region and collaborate to achieve common objectives of border security and regional integration.

“The President is a very good listener. We had discussions regarding what customs can bring to the table in terms of actualising the vision of renewed hope for Nigeria, bridging the gaps in revenue generation, enforcement strategies, and, most importantly, promoting port efficiency and competitiveness,” he said.

The Acting Comptroller-General also assured of a pragmatic move towards decongestion of the country’s ports to enhance revenue generation, facilitation of legitimate trade and ant-smuggling war.

Addressing the rumour of integrating government agencies, Adeniyi said he was not privy to any information about that yet while explaining further that, although, there is a common base among revenue-generating agencies.

“There are some areas where we overlap and some can complement one another but in terms of bringing the agencies together under one organisation, we are yet to get details of that and we will be waiting to get the details and see how that pans out,” he noted.