The Federal Government of Nigeria (FG) plans to generate over $176bn from its new deal signed with the Trade Modernisation Limited, a consortium.
With the signed deal worth $3.2bn, the FG through the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is set to digitalise operations of the border security and revenue collection outfit.
The Controller-General, NCS, Col. Hameed Ali (retd.), in his remarks after the signing, stated that Nigeria was setting a pace that other African countries were looking forward to follow.
Ali noted that the journey has been long and tortuous, but thank God that today, the agency has signed the dotted lines. “Today, we are happy to say that in Nigeria, we are going to be fully electronic, digitised, and modernised. The success of this project will put Nigeria on the map.
“This project is very important in the sense that it has so many benefits that are lined up. The first tangible benefit is the fact that we are going to garner for this country, $3.5bn.
“To the Nigeria Customs, this is going to change the entire business process. It is going to put the Customs on the best part in terms of doing the business. It would remove all arbitrariness and human mistakes. It is a process that would ease the cost of doing business. It is a process that would also assist those of us who were given the task to manage with a simpler process of managing and monitoring,” he added.
The Nigeria Customs Boss said: “Let me also underscore the fact that this problem, having come this far, is a project that we must support in its entirety. There are rumours that this project is going to weed away officers. Let me allay that fear. We are even in need of officers. We have only 15,000 (of them) and by the mission and vision of the management, we will need nothing less than 30,000 people to be able to effectively and efficiently carry out the mandate given to us. So, there is no question of weeding (out) anybody.
“The deal was a public-private partnership arrangement in line with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) guidelines,” Chairman, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, Saleh Ahmadu.
Ahmadu added that “the $3.2bn investments required for the project is already being finalised through an AFC-led initiative. As the concession period begins, we wish to assure Nigerians that the revenue target of $176 billion for the Federal Government will be achieved, if not surpassed.
At the agreement signing ceremony held at the Abuja national headquarters of the NCS were representatives of technical and financial partners in the deal, including African Finance Corporation (AFC) and Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of China-based Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.
