The Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, on Wednesday, 20th September 2023, says the Service will maintain its position of consulting relevant stakeholders to enable its administration to succeed.
The CGC made this known when he received members of the Customs Consultative Committee led by the Chairman of the Council, Aare Hakeem Olanrewaju, at the Customs Headquarters, Abuja, along with newly elected excos of the Association of Nigeria License Customs Agents.
He urged the newly elected leaders of the Association to consider their peculiar privilege in sustaining peace amongst them, which, according to him, will encourage the Service to take them as vital partners.
“I want to use this opportunity to rekindle the good understanding and peace between yourselves so that we will be able to synergize in eradicating threats against revenue collection and national security.” He added.
He said that “the ball is now in the coat of the executive, new management committee and, of course, the board members. I urge you to swing into action and start work because there is much to do to bring sanity and professionalism to the industry.”
He said that the Nigeria Customs Service now shares the challenge of consolidating the recent victory with the association – which will clear the way for innovations in the automation of procedures and benefit authorised economic operators.
The Acting Comptroller-General told the new leaders of ANLCA that the Nigeria Customs Service is willing to collaborate with them to ensure the successful facilitation of trade, adding, “We are going to hold a meeting to Customs Agents to ensure that we bring the required sanity into our operations.”
On his part, Mr. Hakeem Olanrewaju, the Chairman of the Customs Consultative Committee who led the delegation, said they were at the Corporate Headquarter of the Customs to present the newly elected National Executive Council of ANLCA to the Ag. CGC.
Mr Olanrewaju, who congratulated the Ag. CGC, on his appointment by President Bola Ahmad Tinubu, also assured the CGC that the Association had been put back on the rail after having a long time of experiencing hot fracas, adding that “with the intervention of the Ag. Comptroller General of Customs, the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents has embraced a collaborative peace.”
He also recalled how the Nigeria Customs Service, under the stewardship of Ag. CGC Bashir Adewale Adeniyi approved the establishment of a Customs Consultative Committee to broker peace in the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents.
Speaking at the venue, the newly elected president of the association, Emenike Kingsley Nwokeoji, appreciated the Ag CGC for taking the bull by the horns to engineer the peace deal between the faction of the association, affirming that his team have already swung into action to move the association forward.
The president, who described the Ag. CGC as the sole competent officer to lead the Service rightly, adding that “your appointment is timely and most deserving that our dear country needs the most for economic and development growth.”
He, however, extolled the Ag. CGC’s style of leadership as one that accommodates and understands issues at stake and promptly proffers solutions to them, adding that “in that regard, we wish to inform you that we count on you; we know your antecedent, and we hope you will count on us too, to achieve your objectives.”
