By Stpehen Ubanna
All is now set or the Comptroller General of Customs Conference in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, under the Leadership of Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR. The incumbent Customs Comptroller General may have considered it necessary to re-introduce the Conference initiated, described as a talk shop for the service to rub minds and initiate projects to be executed for the coming year and how to go about it without failing.
The Customs Comptroller General may have re-introduced the CG’s Conference which many had described as one o the best policy initiatives of the Late Dikko’s Administration in the service but abandoned by the Army Colonel, acting out a script who did not want to have anything to do with his predecessor’s program.
Given Adeniyi’s involvement in the planning and execution of the previous CG’s Conferences during the Late Dikko’s Administration in different parts of the country including the one Katsina, home state of former President Muhammadu Buhari may have provided him the ammunition on how to go about this time in 2023 and the upcoming Conference in Abuja expected to draw participants from other relevant agencies and ministries.
The success of the 2023 CG’s Conference and the milestone that had been reached by the service in the last one year by implementing the trade Facilitation tools that had been reached at the nation’s seaports, airports and land border Areas which included the authorized Economic Operator, AEO, program, Time Rease Studies, TRS,and Advance Ruling, among others speaks volume.
Determined to achieve the full realization of his vision for the service expected to take it to another where it can compete with other Customs Administrations world- wide may have informed why he has repeatedly attended World Customs Organisation, WCO, under the close watch of Antonio Mikuriya, organized Conferences. One of such WCO Conferences that appears to have shaped the policy measures of the service over the last one year was Technology Conference in Hanoi, Capital of Vietnam in 2023.
The WCO technology Conference, described as very educating to Custom Administrators and policy makers was said to have looked at the critical role of technology in supporting Customs Administrations globally. The Nigerian Customs boss may have alluded to the importance of the WCO Vietnam technology Conference as it was said to have provided the platform for Customs Administrations, partner Companies, sponsors and technology Companies.
He had said that the Hanoi, WCO, technology Conference, had made possible for the service to collaborate and exchange information on the effective integration of technology in Customs operations at the Area, Zonal and the Headquarters. He did not stop there.
He was said to have told those that cares to listen that some of those WCO Conferences he has attended between 2023 and now, particular, the Hanoi technology Conference had resulted in the deployment of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other various analytics to analyze Customs issues and provide Customs solutions. He was emphatic that it was game changer for the country’s trade facilitation drive and revenue generation.
Note that the Customs Comptroller General may have taken advantage of the deployment WCO, technology to declare total war against smugglers and fraudulent importers with their agents at the seaports and Land border areas across the country.
Yusuf, an Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, overseeing the Lagos Zonal office, who could not his feelings had confirmed that the Interventionist Units under his Leadership use of advanced technological services, to combat smuggling and improve revenue generation of the Area Commands are yielding the desired results.
The ACG, had confirmed that the NCS’s commitment to deploying technology to improve revenue generation at the seaports and border control and patrol operations and utomating its operations had made the difference between Adeniyi’s Leadership of the service and other past Comptrollers’ Administration.
Compt. Ben Nkem Oramalugo, Area Controller, Oyo/Osun Command had admitted that the deployment of the WCO technology information to their operations in Oyo and Sun states had pushed up the Command monthly Contraband seizures and revenue generations. It was not surprising why he Interventionist Units Patrol team officers have intensified effort at the border Communities with Benin Republic to ensure that no Contraband enters or Leaves Nigeria unchecked.
The Oyo/Osun Command Area Controller had admitted that with the deployment of modern technology, and the training and retraining of the officers to effectively use the WCO technologies and other technologies that had been introduced by the service over the last one year, ‘’the Command patrol team officers has significantly disrupted smuggling activities in Oyo and Osun states in the recent time that the smugglers are no longer finding it funny’’.
Using the same modern technology which had been introduced for the service anti-smuggling and revenue general services, the Apapa Command, under the close watch o Compt. Babatunde Olomu, overseeing Apapa Command, described as a revenue mobilizer in Customs circles, who was said to have thrown his weight behind DC. Nwanze, , overseeing the Enforcement Unit, to contain the activities of fraudulent importers and smugglers at the premier port.
The seizure of N1.8 billion, fake Parmaceutical products at the the Apapa port last August bear eloquent testimony to what the Customs premier Command is using the application of technology to do at the port: arrest and deTain Containers found to be carrying expired Pharmaceutical products and other dangerous drugs that were said to have been hand over to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Council, NAFDAC.
Many Area Controllers who had been reluctant in speaking to the press about their operations , particular, those of them in the north western and north central geopolitical regions including those of them in the north eastern geopolitical region Commands who may want to take advantage of the CG’s Conference in Abuja FCT,, to open up about their operations may be disappointed.
Maritime analysts fears that they may drowned into irrelevance by the likes of Comptrollers Olomu, Dera Nnadi Tin can Island, Mankini Daniyan, including Muhammed Babandede, who have the revenue records and Contraband seizures to showcase in their respective Commands.
