By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said that it did not have details of the Customs $3.2bn modernisation project.
The Comptroller-General of the NCS, Adewale Adeniyi made the disclosure yesterday.
He was represented at a public hearing organised by the Senate Joint Committees scrutinising the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper by the Deputy Comptroller General Mba Musa.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, is leading other chairmen of the Appropriations, National Planning, Local and Foreign Debt panels to conduct the investigative hearing.
The Senators inquired from the Customs CG, details of the agreement signed by the Federal Government on the Modernisation of Nigeria Customs.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had in April 2023 approved the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) modernisation project, also known as e-customs, despite a court order restraining the federal government from going on with the initiative.
The administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari specifically approved the implementation of the Customs modernization project to a concessionaire.
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The concessionaire is Bergman Securities Consultant and Suppliers Limited as the project sponsor, Africa Finance Corporation UFC as lead financier and Huawei Technologies will be trained as lead technical service provider.
However, stakeholders have knocked the project, saying it’s to mortgage the future of the service and also inimical to national security.
Mba told the lawmakers during the joint session that the Nigeria Customs Service was not privy to details of modernisation agreement.
“We are not privy to details of modernization agreement of the Nigeria Customs Modernisation Project,” Mba told the federal lawmakers.
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He also declared that the NCS lost N1.3trn in 2023 due to waivers and concessions the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration granted to investors.
He explained that NCS would have generated more revenue to the nation’s Consolidated Revenue Fund in 2023 if not because of the waivers and concessions arrangements.
Not comfortable with the arrangement, Musa, the Chairman of the Joint Committee, said the Senate would commence investigation into granting of waivers and concesioning in the country.
Musa said, “By now we shouldn’t be talking about concession for cement manufacturers, we should not even be talking about sugar importation.
“We should not deny ourselves, revenues that we should generate to make our economy vibrant. By now, we should be consolidating on waivers given to boost revenues.
“We would review the waivers and make our recommendations. By now, you (NCS) should be meeting up on your projected target, if there are no waivers.”
