The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) last year commenced the verification of private jets’ data. In this interview with JOHN OFIKHENUA, its National Public Relations Officer (PRO), Timi Bomodi, promises that the service will sustain the exercise.
With the retention of seven per cent cost of collection, the service seems to be challenge-free. Or do you still have any challenge?
There is no system that is without challenges. Of course, there will be challenges. Yes, the seven per cent collection even though it has added to the internal revenue of the service, it is still not enough because there are so many things that are required to have a system that will work at a very high capacity.
I will tell you that the management has engaged in serious acquisition and building of infrastructure for officers. You know, if you look across the country’s most military establishments, you will find that they consider the residential accommodation of their personnel a priority. We are seriously handicapped in that area and that is why this management has made the effort to improve the living conditions of officers.
We are talking also of about the health needs of our officers and men, provision of hospitals and clinics, supplies for those hospitals and clinics, even the working equipment, and the working tools.
The service recently acquired certain specialised vehicles that could be used in very rugged terrain and the reinforcement for those vehicles are not just like the normal reinforcements because in most border locations, it is almost like a war environment and if your personnel are not well equipped, then they will be coming out mainly as casualties of war.
So, if you have to arm them properly, protect them adequately and then ensure that when they are in those kinds of combat situations they don’t end up as victims, they end up as victors because it is a fight that we believe we can win and we should win in a short and long term.
Will the Customs want that seven per cent increased?
There is nobody that would say no. Even though the government has ceded a lot in giving seven per cent cost of collection to the service, we know it can increase if we increase our capacity to work. Because that is a component of what we will collect. So, that is why you see that we are intensifying to always putting more effort and see that what we did last year, we do better this year.
We know once it gets better for the country, it will also get better for us. We are very optimistic as to how we can do that, especially with the introduction of this concession agreement. We anticipate an increase in revenue that could be if not geometric but arithmetic. And in that case, we also know that the seven per cent cost of collection will also go up so long as that is achieved.
About two weeks ago, the concession of the modernisation project agreement was signed. What results have it yielded?
The modernisation agreement as you are aware of was recently signed between the Nigerian Customs Service and an indigenous company, Trade Modernisation Project Limited. The purpose of the agreement is to expand the ICT infrastructure of the NSC and automate fully its processes and procedures. As you may be aware, our processes are tied to not just imports and exports excise, and border control management.
Our responsibilities are very broad and the capacity to effectively perform these activities is greatly enhanced. We believe it will be greatly enhanced by technology. And that is why this concession agreement was signed. We know that as a Customs Service, we can’t do it alone. We have to bring in partners who could midwife the process, and that is where Trade Modernisation Project Limited came in. And they also came in with technical partners.The main one being Huawei, one of the leading providers of hardware and software in the ICT industry.
We know that they have the technical capabilities to help drive this system. And of course the project is financed by another consortium, which is African Finance Corporation, who are ready to provide the huge amount needed to bring this project to reality.
So, that is what’s happening, and we expect that at the end of the day Nigerians will be happier for it because we are talking about enhanced systems, making our operations more competitive.
You know, we are not just competing,we are not competing with anyone within the country, and with other countries.
The more efficient your system, the lower the cost of doing business in our environment and once the cost doing business goes down, we will be able to attract more foreign direct investments. And once you are able to attract more foreign direct investments, it means that your economy will grow and as the economy grows, the potential for any revenue for the government will also grow and that is what this whole thing is about. That is what we expect to see, which primarily informed the CGC’s comments on the day that the agreement was signed. That we expect that the revenue will go up once we begin to implement the agreement in the phases that they were designed to be implemented.
Has the implementation of the agreement commenced?
It has not commenced, but we are phasing it. We will start with the phase of migration, from a platform that we are using, which is the Nigerian Integrated Custom Information System and we will be moving gradually to seeing how our partners can form in with an infrastructure that can accommodate our infrastructure and begin to build, expand the scope to other areas of customs.
The day that event was held, the CGC said the Nigerian Customs is short staffed; it lacks half of the manpower it needs. It needs about 30,000 while it has about 15,000.
What is the service doing about it?
Of course, you know the service does periodic evaluation, a periodic performance evaluation and part of what that entails is that it has to look within and assess the kind of assets that are available to it to carry out its duties. And you know a critical component of the assets available to any organisation is the manpower.
So, the service has done its forecast in terms of manpower placements and with those forecasts it is able to know that yes, we are at a certain number. But for us to operate effectively and efficiently, we have to operate at a certain capacity, and that is what informed the CGC’s comments. We do know, you know, initially there were two fears expressed; one was that this agreement was going to take over the jobs of the Nigerian Customs Service. Or we are outsourcing the activities of the Nigerian Customs to others? But it is not true; we are not doing that.
The next fear was that it will lead to job loss, and the CGC also allayed those fears. It will actually require more people because once you have a technology, what the technology does is it simply makes the system more efficient but you need certain level of interrogation which requires the manpower aspect. At the borders, we actually need more persons than we have in our employment. At the ports once we introduce these technological instruments that this concession agreement will require, we need people that will be there to monitor them.
I mean, we anticipate a future where people will be conducting examinations in the ports in Lagos and there are people at the headquarters level who can see these examinations and draw their conclusions, write their reports. It is just to create levels of checks that will make the system work efficiently, reduce leakages in the system and ensure transparency across board. So, of course more persons will be needed and we expect that as we begin to introduce the other phases of this concession agreement more persons will be brought onto the service and take care of this assignment.
As you also know, we have just concluded a computer-based test for new employees. It is a continuation of what was started in 2019, and this is the second batch of persons that are going to be recruited under that particular assignment. And we expect that as this new employees come into the system, they will be assigned responsibilities that are best fit for what the service intends to implement in the short and long term.
It is obvious that for your officers to key into this automation, they must be IT compliant. What is the service doing about IT training?
The service has a very robust modernisation and ICT unit. If you go to the department, not just here but across the country, we have young, highly trained, very articulate officers who have proved their mettle in that department. As a matter of fact, many of them have won international and local awards in their contributions to enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the system. And we are not resting on our oars. We are actually expanding the unit even more by introducing newer elements, which requires even larger engagements of individuals with those kinds of trainings and capacity. Of course, in this ongoing recruitment there has been a lot of emphasis on having an enlarged ICT modernisation department and bringing in persons with those kinds of skills that are highly useful in using the kind of technology we will be deploying in the very near future.
Last year, the Nigerian Customs Service conducted a verification for private jets in the country. We did not hear the outcome of the verification. I want to know if it is a one off exercise.
Of course, it is not a one off exercise. We started that verification and you know most things we do take time. If not for anything, but for record purposes, it is a very vital exercise because we want to know just the way when you bring in a vehicle into the country you have the vehicle registered and all the data concerning that vehicle is captured somewhere. Periodically, if there are certain payments of taxes that are necessary for the owners of these vehicles to do for the government.
Of course, the system, which is an automated system is alerting the owner to do that. So, the same thing is with high networth individuals in types of jets, helicopters wherever there is a requirement as to their rules and procedures the importation and use of types of assets within the country. And that is what we are trying to do, which is first document those who have these high vehicles, airplanes and then see also if they have been up and doing in terms of their obligations to government. Those that have not, we have put the notices across to them. A good number of them have made payments to the government. It is an exercise that is ongoing. It is the one that the service will sustain in the long term for the purpose of data gathering and for collecting revenue that are accruable to the government.
Last year, the NCS launched some boats for marine operations. How have these equipment improved the operations of the service?
As I said, the thinking of Nigeria Customs management is to deploy its assets in such a way we can get maximum returns on them and the areas of revenue collections, trade facilitation or enforcement. And the deployment of boat as asset in the marine environment has actually yielded a lot of benefits. If you look at the reports from all our marine units in recent times, you see the high volume of seizures than had been made in all our marine units. This is not to say there cannot be improvement but when you introduce anything new you also have to incorporate the training aspect into it. It is the same thing like when you introduce a new asset like a phone. You do not only need to train the person that will run it but you need to have a better understanding of the terrain under which those boats will operate. It is very important we use equipment that can operate efficiently on shallow waters. If you are used to that and, suddenly, you are given heavier equipment that would not operate heavily in certain kinds of water, then you have to be sure that the navigational skills of the people you are handing these equipment over to are top notch.
Otherwise instead of deploying for effectiveness you may be with certain challenges that will actually affect the productivity of the equipment.
So training is ongoing. You have different aspects of the training that have to do with equipment handling and navigation, maintenance and so many other things. And the service is Keen on approaching this whole process holistically. That is why you see beyond the seizures that are made by our marine commands, the issue of deployment, which we are taking our time to see, especially for high end and for high value assets of the service.
Have there been any seizures of petroleum products using the boats?
Virtually, daily where there are hoard of petroleum products. In short, one of the major challenges is having enough space to warehouse items that are seized in the cause of enforcing duties. For petroleum products, the issue is the volatility of the product itself. So, when seizures are made the service cannot warehouse. You normally warehouse rice and other commodities we have to dispose of them as quickly as possible. Yes, of course, there has been remarkable success in checkmating the activities of those whose intentions is to smuggle this product out of the country.
What was the revenue collection for May, this year?
I cannot readily give you that number now but what I can say is that we have the annual projections, which if you check the historical trajectory of revenue collections in the service you will see there is a steady increase in the volume of revenue that the service collects. Last year, we collected over N2 trillion, which was remarkable giving the circumstances under which we operated within that period. For this year, the expectations are also very higher and we are working towards achieving that in a year that is considered to be low traffic. We are gradually picking up our pace and we know, hopefully, before the end of the year are likely going to meet the target set for us by the government if not exceed it.
Has the Nigerian Customs Service jettisoned its automated auction scheme? If it has not, what is the update because one has not heard anything about it?
As you said, it is automated. If you go on the Customs website, there is a link e-service. It is the link that handles our aspects of those activities. Auctions are ongoing activities and because they are ongoing they have to be set up in such away, so that in a certain period that the items put up for auction are accessible to the public. So, if you go to the website and click the link, you will see the various things that the individuals users of that website are required to do. They are required to have a tax ID number. They are required to register on the site, create a wallet and fund it. There are so many requirements and they are clearly spelt out there. Once items are populated on that portal that will be auctioned then persons will go in there and look at the items that they may want to bid.
So, it is a very transparent system that is designed to eliminate the subjective consideration of an individual so that whoever is fortunate enough to win a bid for an item can have it.
What is the payable Customs vehicle duty?
As you know, the duty paid on vehicles either used or not, the duty payable is 20 per cent. And we have a component that is referred to as import adjustment tax of 15 per cent. So, the duty itself is 20 per cent that goes for used and new vehicles.
How compliant are the dealers?
We had a lot of challenges, especially in the areas of importation of vehicles. We know that our borders giving their very nature have been largely exploited by smugglers, who insist on following those borders just to evade the payments of duty. That is one of the reasons we introduce our automation system – valuation protocol. What it does is to make the system for people to use with ease to get their goods out of the ports. So far, we have been getting positive results from stakeholders: clearing agents and motor dealers and other members of the public because it is a fair, efficient and fast way of clearing goods out of the ports.
Does smuggling still thrive?
Of course, smuggling thrives and it is not unique to Nigeria, there is no country in the world that has been able to eliminate smuggling. I mean the biggest countries in the world with their technology and everything has not been able to eliminate smuggling.
The intention of every customs administration will be to reduce it to the barest minimum. And that is what I told you earlier about the concession agreement which allows for an expansion of infrastructure that will assist Customs officers with their jobs. Like in this case, we know that an area where we are having serious challenges in manning our borders, we do that physically using intelligence, using the kind of assets that we have but there are serious limitations. By the time you introduce technology, and you are able to get information either from aerial surveillance equipment like drones, satellite imaging, geo- spartial and those things, you will have more detailed information, it becomes a lot more easier to combat smuggling.
So, we anticipate that when this technology is introduced into the system, we, like other advanced customs administration, would have been able to bring smuggling to its barest minimum. And we eagerly look forward to that time when this will be achieved.
What fuels smuggling in Nigeria?
You can’t really put your finger on what fuels it. There are people that feel they smuggle just because they feel that there are benefits to be derived from it. Every time there seems to be some form of economic advantage that can be gained across the border, people tend to want to exploit the loopholes in the system to make those benefits. And you find that in virtually all industries once there are differentials in pricing that exist between one area and another there will always be people that would want to exploit it for economic gains, and so we have that.
So, we also have situations in a lot of our border communities, which, unfortunately, most of them are lacking in certain basic infrastructure, and when they lack in these infrastructure and there seem not to be some kind of recourse to economic empowerment, most of them tend to engage in self-help and the easiest thing that they do is use the borders in such a way that they can achieve some form of economic power by using their unique positions for criminal activities.
It is very enticing as I must say, because where the infrastructure does not exist people tend to be like, they tend to feel entitled and to say this is where we are, and we should benefit from where we are, simply by being dwellers of border towns, villages. That is what we have experienced. And that is why the service has taken it upon itself to engage border communities, different sensitisation, and social responsibility programmes as well as youth engagements and empowerment. So, just to tell them that the implications of smuggling will be to the economy of the nation, not just the economy but the security of the people themselves. Our experience in the Northeast especially, you might think there is something to gain economically but if you lose the control of movement of individuals or certain kinds of items through our communities, then we may also have to live with the consequences.
In this case, it means having terrorists among us which will compromise the safety and well-being of individuals that live in those communities. So, we try to educate them about the implications of allowing their communities to be used as transit points by smugglers, and other potential invaders, and some of them have been quite helpful. It is a process that has to be continued for us to sustain the kind of progress we have made. And hopefully, we believe that we would get them to buy into the fiscal policies of the government and the reason things need to be done properly because, ultimately, they too will benefit from that.