•Hosting IATF in Lagos goes beyond Customs
By Dickson Omobola
Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, is at the International African Trade
Fair, IATF, 2025, currently holding in Algiers, Algeria. In this monitored interview, Adeniyi spoke on the need to simplify port processes to raise export volumes, among others. Excerpts
Why do we need to reduce the cost of doing business at the port, particularly for demurrage and the cost of logistics?
It is important. From the statistics we have shared, which have also been circulated by virtually every stakeholder in Nigeria, it is clear that we are not doing well enough in terms of exports from African countries that should be driving large volumes, and a number of challenges have been identified. Part of them is the processes that are paused. Some of these processes could be very long, and we all need to come up with simplified processes that can help us turn up the volume of our exports and help us to conduct businesses in the port in a faster way. So, we are already on the road to doing that in Nigeria. We have a dedicated terminal now for exports, and our statistics in the last two years have shown that we are on the right trajectory towards ramping up the volume of our exports in Nigeria.
How much progress has been made?
The first is to promote a shared understanding among all the stakeholders involved and move in a coordinated manner. For so long, we have been progressing in silos. There has been progress in the payment system. We heard that African Export–Import Bank, AFREXIM Bank has initiated the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, PAPSS, programme. African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, is also making a lot of progress in what they are doing, particularly in capacity building. The World Customs Organisation, WCO, is encouraging customs administrations to embrace tools of trade facilitations. It is now time for us to bring all of this under one roof and let those initiatives and reforms speak to one another. I went to Biashara Africa to let them know that it is not enough for us to be making progress in each of those places, and they are not having a handshake with one another. The first major step is that AFREXIM Bank, the Secretariat of the Free Trade have all accepted that customs should also move with them. We need to move together. We need to make progress together. And this explains why we are convening that conference in Abuja to bring all of our regulatory authorities, facilitators, but most importantly, the economic operators together. We also need them to come and tell us where their shoes pinch them, so that all of us will be able to get coordinated solutions to those problems.
There have been a number of initiatives under your tenure as Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs. Are you making things easy for exporters and importers in the country?
I have been very intentional in pursuing policies that speak to trade facilitation because I know that when we get it right in trade facilitation, it will help us to increase turnover, increase volume and then it will translate into revenue. Just recently my service was extended and there were some key performance indicators that were given to me. Ease of doing business is there, to facilitate the implementation of the African continental free trade is also there. A national single window is there, which we want to launch in the first quarter next year. What we have been doing in the last two years are stepping stones, platforms for us to be able to achieve this. We already have an Authorised Economic Operator, AEO, programme, that we piloted last year. Now, we have several companies in Nigeria that are enjoying the benefits of expedited clearance in our ports and reduced documentation. We have been playing a very active role in the implementation of a national single window. Our officers are there working with the Secretariat of National Single Window to get us up and running. We have networking, cooperation and support from the Secretariat of the African continental free trade and to demonstrate that there are some customs administrations that we have been working with directly to ensure that there is harmonisation of our policies and interoperability of our systems. Bené Customs is one of them. We have really advanced, we have got into an advanced stage on how we can launch a system that allows our systems to speak to one another. This is what we intend to replicate with other customs administrations so that we can benefit more from the dividends of trade facilitation.
Nigeria is going to host the IATF 2027. What is your response to that hosting right that was just announced?
We were all very excited. I spoke with the Minister of Trade yesterday (Friday) who received the IATF banner on behalf of government and the people of Nigeria and, from what we have seen here in Algiers and the previous editions, it is a very big spectacle and it is not just about customs. It is a whole lot of approach that requires coordinated effort from the airport, including the kind of reception, how we receive our visitors, how we make them feel, the huge logistics of organising an event as magnificent as this. We have been in Algiers in the last 48 hours, and we have seen big centres, big venues and there seems to be a high level of coordination. So, it goes beyond customs. Customs will do its part. We have a regime of temporary admission that allows exhibitors, those participating in trade fairs, to bring in their goods on a temporary basis. We have a convention that covers it, and what we will just do for IATF will be to simplify those procedures so that those who are coming for the trade fair will not have any hassles at the airport or at the seaport. But like I said, it requires the cooperation and the coordination of everybody. Immigration will be involved, security will be involved and transportation will be involved. Our big hotels will have to up their game so that they can benefit and take maximum benefits from this. The Lagos State government also has a role to play because this event is going to be held in Lagos. It is really very huge, and what a big opportunity for Nigeria to announce its presence as somebody that promotes a competitive economy.
What do you think is important for intra-Africa trade?
…At the end of the day, the posture of President Trump may actually position him as a friend of Africa, who is trying to encourage us to look inward and think about our economy first before we think of market access elsewhere. There is enough for us to do in Africa, there is enough market for us to trade within ourselves. I mean, we are talking of a population that is very huge. President Bola Tinubu has rightly identified this and one of his pillars of policy is to make trade a major focus for economic development. To make the Nigerian economy more competitive, you will see a number of initiatives, including the national single window, decongesting our ports, supporting initiatives that customs is doing to modernise, bringing in authorised economic operator programmes and trade facilitation programmes. For now, we have shown that when we take these giant steps around the trade facilitation ecosystem, the result at the end of the day, even if we don’t say we are pursuing it, is revenue. Half year revenue in 2025 for customs and other revenue agencies has shown that we are on the right track and given all indicators, we are likely going to surpass our targets in 2025. So, we are still going to be very bold and intentional in the areas of trade facilitation. We are going to be speaking more to our stakeholders, our exporters, our importers and address issues of concern so that we will be able to make our economy more competitive.
The post Simplified port processes key to raising export volumes – Adeniyi appeared first on Vanguard News.
