Adewale Adeniyi, the acting comptroller general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), announced that he would start a conversation with the Republic of Benin Customs Administration to talk about border security, cross-border importation, and the application of technological solutions to complex border problems.
This was said by Adeniyi on Tuesday during a private visit to offer congratulations to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his selection as the ECOWAS Chairman.
Adeniyi was upbeat about the prospects for regional integration, cooperation, border security, and coordinated monetary frameworks under Tinubu’s leadership of ECOWAS.
He claimed that one of the topics discussed with the President was actively involving regional customs administrations and working together to accomplish shared goals of border security and regional integration.
“The 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,” he continued.
The Acting Comptroller-General promised to make a practical step to clear the nation’s ports of congestion in order to increase tax generation, ease lawful trade, and fight smuggling.
In response to the rumor of government agency integration, Adeniyi stated he was not yet privy to any information about it while going on to say that revenue-generating agencies do share a common base.
“There are some areas where we overlap and some can complement one another but in terms of bringing the agencies together under one organisation, we are yet to get details of that and we will be waiting to get the details and see how that pans out,” he concluded.
