ABUJA: Newly appointed Zonal Coordinator in charge of the Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service, Assistant Comptroller General, ACG, and Charles Edike, has said that the zone under his watch will ensure trade facilitation and promote investment inflow into the nation’s maritime industry.
Zone A of the service, which accounts for over 70 per cent of the service’s annual revenue, is made up of all the commands in Lagos covering the two major seaports; Apapa and Tin Can Island , Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos and the two major land borders, Seme and Idiroko.
Edike however warned that the service would not sacrifice collection of government’s revenue on the altar of trade promotion and facilitation.
According to him, the current dispensation of Customs is such that no officer of the service is allowed to hold down any importer’s document for one minute longer than necessary, warning that any officer caught would be dealt with severely.
“Holding any consignment by any officer would mean holding the nation’s economy down and we will not look kindly at such officer but we will also ensure that the importer must do the right thing so that no one will have any reason to hold down his consignment down in the first place”, he said.
He said that the role of the importers, agents or freight forwarders in the new dispensation is to comply with the extant trade laws and regulations, warning that the service will no longer tolerate any form of violation of such laws and regulations.
“We will promote trade and investments in the nation’s supply chain at all time but we will also frown seriously at any attempt by the agents or their importers not to comply with the trade regulations but it will no longer be business as usual”, he further warned.
On the declining import volumes, which led to a sharp decline in the revenue collection by the service, Edike said that the new management would ensure that the service collects all collectible revenue since it has no control over the volume of imported goods that come into the country.
Edike, until his recent promotion to the rank of an Assistant Comptroller General and subsequently posted at the Zonal Coordinator was the area controller in charge of Apapa Area 1 command of the service, which controls Lagos Ports Complex Apapa, all the free zones in the zone and some bonded terminals and port facilities.
Before his posting to Apapa, Edike served as Customs Area Controller for the Tin Can Island Port and Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, where he carried out massive reforms of the systems in both commands.
With his last week’s posting to the zonal headquarters, the ACG has already started visiting the various area commands under his control beginning with Apapa, where he charged officers and men of the service to brace up for the change that is currently sweeping through the length and breadth of the service.
Part of the reform was the compulsory retirement of a total of 35 top officers of the service ranging from the five Deputy Comptrollers General to eight Assistant Comptrollers General and many other Comptrollers serving at the Headquarters Abuja and the various commands across the country.
