The Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi has said a high-level meeting between African Customs administrations and organized business will convene in Lagos in the first quarter of 2025 to discuss challenges and opportunities in implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
He made this known at the special roundtable organised by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs to inaugurate the Bashir Adeniyi Centre for International Trade and Investment on 24th October, 2024 themed ‘Nigeria’s Trade and Investment : Challenges and Way ‘.
According to him, the establishment of the Bashir Adeniyi Center is timely, as Nigeria repositions itself in the global trade environment. He emphasized the importance of stakeholder engagement in addressing contemporary trade and investment challenges.
The CGC underscored the significance of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in shaping national development through rigorous research and informed debate.
He stated that NIIA was stablished in 1961 and it has consistently demonstrated exceptional leadership in policy discussions, fostering high-level dialogue on crucial matters such as regional integration, international trade dynamics, and economic symposium.The Bashir Adeniyi Center for International Trade and Investment is a strategic recognition of the vital intersection between customs administration and international trade facilitation.
He also noted that the initiative aligns seamlessly with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s priorities, particularly advancing economic growth, ensuring national security, fighting revenue leakages, and promoting governance.
“Just yesterday the deployment of our B’Odogwu platforms that is the indigenous unified customs processes system platform which was piloted at PTML in Lagos is also one major initiative in this direction. The B’Odogwu platform developed through collaboration between the service and the trade modernization team is an indigenous modernization initiative aimed at the technological advancements in customs operations we’ve also carried out stakeholders engagement amongs numbers of measures implemented by customs to address contemporary trade and investment challenges.” he said.
Speaking on the sideline of the event on how the NCS has been involved in trade facilitation across international boundaries and how he feels having an edifice named after him , Adeniyi said “I feel humbled, I feel honored I am indeed very delighted that my effort has been recognized by the institute . I say a very big thank you to them but then the center is now going to provide the kind of intersection between research ,trade facilitation and revenue generation
“I’m happy my personality was used to name the center and all of that but like I said it needs to go beyond me, it needs to go beyond customs, it needs to go beyond Nigeria we need to extend the conversation beyond all of these.We all have the same mind set about trade facilitation.
“Its also very important that we know that if we compromise compliance and control we will be loosing the gains that we can get from trade facilitation .Our experience has always been that some of the organized private sector may want to cut corners in terms of compliance with regulatory controls, prohibition and all that but we have seen from our experience in the last one year that once we address the issue around trade facilitation it will improve the environment under which trade is conducted and it is going to lead to an improved turnover.”
Adeniyi envisions the center evolving into a comprehensive national hub for international trade and investment, driving research, policy development, and strategic planning for the nation’s benefit.
