The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has made commitment to support Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to promote technology driven service to boost the nation’s economy.
The NCS Public Relations Officer, Mr Joseph Attah made this known in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.
Attah said the CBN also pledged to establish the control centre for monitoring all scanning sites in its bid to boost national economy, especially agricultural sector.
He disclosed that already Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning had purchased three new scanners to enhance the proposed E-customs operations.
He said this means that within the next six months, NCS would have about seven functional scanners to be mounted at strategic entry points even before the full deployment of e-Customs components which would guarantee the deployment of 135 modern scanners.
Attah however expressed appreciation of the service and commended the leadership of CBN for this strategic intervention in the interest of the nation.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson added that in the service’s efforts to prevent the entry of items that could compromise the security of the citizens, economy and the well being of people, it had seized 4,304 assorted items with a duty paid value of N28.2 billion.
He said the seizures included arms, ammunitions, illicit drugs, used clothing, vegetable oil, frozen poultry and foreign rice among others.
He assured Nigerians on the total commitment of the customs to the course of protecting national security and economy.
“We call on Nigerians, especially the business community to support the NCS as our borders open to African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in order to benefit from the trade agreement and other cross border activities” he stated.
