SCAN Congratulates Adeniyi On Customs Transformation In One Year
By Frederick Wright
Journalists, under the aegis of Shipping Correspondents Association of Nigeria (SCAN) have congratulated the Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Bashir Adeniyi on his transformational footprint in the last one year.
President, SCAN, Eugene Agha and the Secretary, Anthony Nwachukwu, in a congratulatory message to the Custom’s boss, said NCS has gradually returned to a service-oriented federal agency with a human face now courting friendship and cooperation from near and far-flung stakeholders since his appointment a year ago.
The group stated that under Adeniyi’s leadership, the agency is now garnering for itself honours and recognitions across local and international plains based on adjudged requisite initiatives for trade facilitation, anti-smuggling campaigns and deliberate partnerships with relevant agencies for effective results.
It identified few of the initiatives will include his contribution to decongesting the port access roads, modernisation of NCS operations, transition from Fast Track 2.0 to Authorised Economic Operators (AEO) for expedited customs clearance processes, reduced inspections, and enhanced predictability in customs clearance, among others.
“Consequently, the NCS rose from an embarrassing 28th (with an average percentage score of 18.45 per cent) in 2020 and 2022 among the 37 ranked Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to the present top with 100 per cent (81.5 per cent increase) in the one year of your tenure yet.
“Remarkably, there is also the recently launched Time Release Study (TRS), aimed at identifying bottlenecks in the clearance process, as well as the dissolution of multiple-layered ad-hoc enforcement teams that hindered rather than facilitated trade.
“It is not surprising, therefore, that the area commands and federal operations units are all hitting new highs in trade facilitation, revenue collection and anti-smuggling successes as voluntary compliance increases and community understanding paves way for thwarting economic sabotage.
“In the same vein, even the recently launched Operation Whirlwind is taking the wind off the sail of cross-border petroleum products smugglers,” SCAN stated.
