The acting Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, has signed a communiqué with the Customs of the Republic of Benin to facilitate trade between the two countries.
Speaking in a visit to the Nigerian Embassy to meet the Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Benin, Ambassador Kayode Aluko, and the Director General of the Customs Administration in Benin, Alain Hinkati, Customs partners Webb Fontaine and Benin Control, Adeniyi said, “The objective of the visit is for us to review friendship with the customs administration of Benin and also to deepen collaborations in areas of common interest.
“I saw the attention that was given to the port of Cotonou, the progress that is being made in reducing clearance time, ensuring that there is no congestion at the port and, most importantly, the use of technology to drive operations of the Customs administration.
“The attempt which Benin Customs has done towards trade facilitation is something that Nigeria Customs will also be doing particularly to look at where we can use our processes to reduce the cost and time of doing business.”
The communiqué between the two Customs administrations covers the continuation of efforts to promote the ECOWAS trade liberalization scheme and the facilitation of the movement of goods and community products in particular; facilitation of the issuance of laissez-passer (permit) for a short stay in one of the countries of means of transport registered in the other country, the removal of barriers and other obstacles to legitimate trade and the establishment of Customs units when the traffic justifies it, strict compliance with transit rules, harmonization of the list of products prohibited by the two countries and the rapid integration of Nigeria into the Interconnected System for the Management of Goods in Transit (SIGMAT), which already includes the Customs Administrations of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.