Follow Us on Google
By Steve Agbota
As part of efforts to deepen capacity in the area of global trade, Eyis Resources Limited has trained members of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) on 46 international modules.
Some of the modules include; treatment, classification, interpretation and application of trade procedures.
Speaking at the capacity building programme and presentation of certificates on Tuesday in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of Eyis Resources Limited, Lucky Amiwero, said that their were complexities in Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), which was part of the new Nigeria Customs Act, 2023, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, the procedures and application in the Nigeria Customs Service Acts 2023, complexity of the Act, procedure in World Trade Organisation (WTO), World Customs Organisation (WCO) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNTAD).
“This necessitated the three month capacity building, which commenced from November 2023 to February 2024 in the treatment, classification, interpretation and application of trade procedures of 46 international modules of various courses,” he said.
He said the essence of the training for the members of the association is to understand complexities in the new trade regime and the implementation, adding that TFA and African Continental Free Trade Agreement have started implementation expect Customs Act, which people have not seen much implementation.
According to him, the Customs Act has too many complexities, ambiguity with many duplication in the Act.
He added that the procedures in the Act are what he has put forward to the members of the association so that they can be equipped to face challenges in the economy because they are the first contact.
“So, all these areas are what we put together to be able to equip them and build capacity so that they can do their job better and assist the country to say this thing is right and this thing is not right. This will help them to place priority in the right perspective.
“What we have done so far is that we have X-rayed the new Customs Act, we have looked at it, we saw a lot of ambiguities, which we will address in a week to come. We have done that in our first write up and we are still going to address that in the second write up,” he said.
Blue economy being part of the 46 international modules discussed during the training, he said Nigeria is not ready to harness the potential embedded in blue economy, adding that blue economy is what the country has inside the ocean and the rest.
“When we talk about blue economy is what all what we have inside the ocean. Most of the things we are using today come from inside the ocean. Light is from the ocean while marine is blue economy. Blue economy has to do with maritime family, we are talking about the lake, the rivers, the ocean and the canal. What do we derive from that? We have been able to educate our members on that,” he explained.
He said by next week, the association is going to push out a lot of documents to the present government to give them direction on ways to go on the blue economy.
