
…Adeniyi projects improved Regional Integration, Border Security
The Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi MFR, has congratulated Nigeria’s President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his recent appointment as the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States.
Ag. Customs CG, who met with the President in a private visit at the Presidential Villa in Abuja yesterday, expressed joy as the appointment which he believes would improve regional integration and border security in the sub-region.
Adeniyi also expressed delight that the appointment coincided with his emergence as the Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service.
According to him, part of the discussions with President Tinubu was to actively engage Customs administrations across the borders, particularly the strategic ones and collaborate to achieve common objectives of border security and regional integration.
“I will be paying an official visit to the Republic of Benin, to have discussions with the Customs Administration of Benin to address the issues of border security, importation across the border, and more importantly, the deployment of technological solutions to very complex border problems,” the Customs boss said.
He, however, seized the opportunity to express profound gratitude to Mr President for finding him worthy to be the Acting Comptroller General of Customs while stating that the opportunity to meet with the President is fruitful and engaging.
“Mr President is a very good listener. We had discussions regarding what Customs can bring to the table, in terms of actualizing the vision of renewed hope for Nigeria, bridging the gaps in revenue generation, enforcement strategies, and most importantly, promoting port efficiency and competitiveness,” Adeniyi posited.
The Acting Comptroller-General of Customs also assured of a pragmatic move towards decongestion of Nigerian ports to enhance revenue generation, facilitation of legitimate trade and suppression of smuggling.
Speaking about the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC), he observed that there is a document which has been made public and centred around aligning the vision of Customs, the activities of Customs in short, medium and long terms with those nobles objectives set out in PAC documents.
Addressing the rumour of integrating government agencies, Adeniyi said he is not privy to any information about that, but he explained that there exists a common base between all the agencies that are generating revenue for the country even as there are some cross-cutting issues.
“There are some areas where we overlap and there are some areas where we can complement each other but in terms of bringing the agencies together under one organization, we are yet to get details of that and we will be waiting to get the details and see how that pans out,” he said.