The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR, on Monday, presided over a high-level port stakeholders meeting for Apapa and Tincan Island ports for the implementation of its Unified Customs Management System also known as B’Odogwu.
Adeniyi assured the participants, mostly freight forwarders, that the Service is committed to addressing the teething challenges with the take-off digital process at the nation’s leading seaports.
Speaking at the event, the Customs boss described B’Odogwu as a new concept that is inward looking, indigenous and resilient to handle the complexities of international trade.
His words: “Let me reexpress our strategic commitment to addressing all the challenges with the system. Our leadership team has clearly defined benchmarks to make the process seamless. We will continue to have these engagements will all categories of stakeholders.
“Let us learn to call it rightly. B in B’ODOGWU stands for border. When we launched this at PTML, we experienced a number of glitches. We had a strong and effective team to handle these challenges.
“Some of these challenges have been addressed, but we decided that we can begin implementation while we work towards addressing the rest of the challenges. Our resolve to work together should be stronger, especially now that you have one of your own as CG.”
The Customs boss also revealed that Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has endorsed the Service implementation of B’Odogwu and the necessary directives will be given to all authorized dealer banks.
Adeniyi equally noted that the NCS will have collaborative working groups and help-desks to give assistance where necessary to port stakeholders.
“We recognise that your confidence in this system is very important and we are working towards keeping your confidence. On behalf of Customs officers and men, I want to recommit our efforts that we will continue in this trajectory, we will do more in 2025 so that the public will have maximum impact from what we do.”
Speaking earlier, the Deputy Comptroller-General, ICT and Modernization, DCG Kikelomo Adeola, stated that the B’Odogwu platform has recorded zero downtime since its introduction.
DCG Adeola also maintained NCS has made training a critical thing to prevent the abuse of the system and reassured that the trainings will continue for various categories of stakeholders.
On his part, the Zonal Coordinator, Zone A, ACG Charles Orbih observed that B’Odogwu epitomises consolidation, collaboration and innovation, which are key thrust of the Comptroller-General’s leadership.
He expressed optimism that the new process will guarantee faster clearance time, improve port efficiency and the jettisoning of obsolete paper-based processes for a paperless system.
In his welcome remarks, the Area Controller of Apapa Port, Comptroller Babatunde Olomu posited that for every problem encountered during the test-run phase of the project, collaboration will lead to the attainment of a more permanent solution.
TCIP Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Frank Onyeka; PTML Customs boss, Comptroller Tenny Daniyan were at the event, as were several freight forwarding bigwigs, including; Deputy President, Seaports, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Chief Afam Chukwuma; Managing Director, Muna Sylver Nigeria Limited, Princess Chi Ezeh; Chairman, TCIP Chapter, Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON), Alhaji Akeem Aribiojo; Chairman, APFFLON Apapa Chapter, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan; among others.
