We Are Yet To Receive Presidential Order Restricting Food Importation — Customs

Roland Ekama, Lagos

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Tin Can Island Command has said that no official directive has been received from the presidency on the recent policy of the federal government restricting foreign exchange (Forex) on importation of food into Nigeria.

Recall that the federal government last week directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to stop issuance of foreign exchange for shippers on food importation.

The restriction was aimed to boost local production of food in the country.

But speaking with our correspondent over the weekend, Public Relations Officer of Tin Can Island Command of the Service, Uche Ejesieme said that the service is reading the policy on the pages of newspaper like every  other Nigerians, adding that it had not received any official communication on the policy.

He said, “For us in Customs, I don’t think we have gotten any official communication to that effect and not until we have that and before government will come up with any policy, they must have studied the nitty gritty and they have seen the importance of that policy.

“So, it is actually not what we can talk about because I read from the papers just like you did.

Speaking further, Ejesieme quipped that the  command has taken steps that yielded results thus  increase in revenue generation.

According to him, the command raked in unprecedented N33.5 billion in the month of July as a result of collaboration with critical stakeholders .

He further explained that the Area Controller adopted the strategy to figure out the lapses of every stakeholder and proffered solutions for mutual benefits and trade facilitation.

His words, “For the first time in the history of this country, we were able to gather everybody including terminal operators, shipping companies, heads of security agencies, heads of regulatory agencies, executives of all the freight forwarding groups domiciled in Tincan, members of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria  and also LCCI.

“At the end of that meeting, so many issues came up as a result of the review because we discovered some lapses and gaps cutting across the entire chain.

“The Controller saw the need to improve on the value chain integrity and we were able to tell ourselves where component units are not doing well.

“One good thing that came out of the meeting is that the critical stakeholders, contrary to the notion that used to have, now realised that the role of customs is limited in the value chain,” Ejesieme stated.