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The Nigeria Customs Service, the Tin Can Island Command said it has taken its operations beyond revenue generation for government by creating enabling environment for complaint traders to transact their business seamlessly.
Speaking with Daily Sun recently, the Publuc Relations Officer of the Command, Mr. Uche Ejesieme, said that what the Command is doing now is actually beyond the issue of ensuring that it remains top in terms of revenue generation, adding that the Commmad is also trying to inculcate the concept of ease of doing business to ensure trade facilitation.
He added: “For us, Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Ali, is actually looking beyond generation and collection of revenue but to even creating an enabling environment for stakeholders who are compliant to do their businesses seamlessly. We hope to see that there is a kind of paradigm shift, with new strategies. We are not only talking about revenue collection or generation but now creating enabling environment so that people who are coming to transact their businesses in this place don’t make unnecessary or man-made brick walls. We have zero tolerance for any kind of infraction.”
Fielding questions on how the Apapa gridlock is affecting the Command’s operations, he said the Tin Can Island Command would not use gridlock as an excuse not to perform in terms of revenue generation or even in the area of import and export.
He said: “With infrastructure or no infrastructure, we have the capacity and competence to do what we are doing. I’m happy you brought the issue of the challenges of gridlock vis-a-vis the way it affects our operations. First and foremost, I want to lay emphasis that trade facilitation stands on tripod, you have to talk of infrastructure, compliance and transparency. “The challenges of gridlock bothers on infrastructure and you could see clearly that suddenly there are challenges of infrastructure. For instance, the time it takes to go into the Terminal to pick up the cargo and by the time the cargo eventually leaves, it takes quite sometimes. There are of challenges and impediments. However, that does not mean Customs is being docile.”
According to him, Tin Can Island Custom is not allowing any kind of situation to dampen the spirit of the service. Adding that Customs is not looking at gridlock not to perform.
