COMPTROLLER General of Nigeria, Customs Service, and outgoing Vice Chair of World Customs Organisation (WCO), West and Central African region, Bashir AdewaleAdeniyi has charged the body to mobilise as much resources as possible to fund the activities in the sub-region.
Adeniyi said the Customs’ administrations in the sub-region is faced with the challenges of fragile borders, insecurity and the challenge of working with other security agencies to ensure each member countries’ national security.
Adeniyi stated this on Tuesday at the handing over Office of the Vice Chair for WCO West and Central Africa to the Director General of Mali Customs, Inspector General AmadouKonate in Abuja.
“The handover document has identified some challenges; some immediate challenges that the Vice Chair would confront in the months ahead in the months ahead.
“The most important one is that we need to mobilise as much funds and resources as possible to fund our activities in the sub-region. We are in the middle of organizing another donors conference. So I want to charge the vice chair to make this a priority programme.”
He pointed out that the generation gap in the country is not limited to Nigeria alone, so conscious efforts must be taken at the regional level to begin to encourage younger generations of customs officers, and stressed that the work and the activities of the Office of the Vice Chair require the support of the Government of the host country.
He charged the new Vice Chair to continue to take measures that would pull all customs administrations in the sub-region together.
“We are stronger together. We must understand that we might have some disagreements here and there across our sub-region but the evidence suggests that our challenges are the same, and we will stand stronger to confront those challenges when we stay together. And finally, we are not all at the same level of development, so we also find opportunities to provide mentorship to each other in different aspect of customs operations,” Adeniyi further stated.
He reiterated that “We are one sub-region, but we have very common experience.
“We have very similar mandates from every customs administrations to the other, about every customs administrations generating revenue to support the national budget.
“We also have the obligations to implement measures that improve the environment of trade through trade facilitation.
“From what we see from experience all over the world, we are living in a world of economic integrations, customs administrations are charged with the responsibility of administering and implementing this.”
The WCO is a platform where members meet regularly, and have activities where they discuss problems and prefer solutions to them.
Members also examine best practice that are available in different customs administrations, and make efforts to learn from those best practices. They undertake capacity-building programmes between themselves.
The World Customs Organisation is an umbrella body that brings over 184 customs administrations globally together. And it’s headed by a Secretary General, who is elected and have an administrative structure that is headed by a chairperson.
The West and Central African sub-region has 24 customs administrations, both from the West and Central parts of Africa, and each region is headed by a vice chair that is also elected.
The new Vice Chair for WCO West and Central Africa, the Director General of Mali Customs, Inspector General AmadouKonate pledged to continue from where CGC Adeniyi stopped.
Nigeria was elected into this position in May 2022.
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