The Zonal Coordinator, Nigeria Customs Services (NSC), Zone ‘B’, Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) Abubakar Bashir has said that the activities of Boko Haram terrorists as well as the general insecurity in the northern part of the country has gravely affected the revenue generation of the service in the north western zone of the country.
Speaking in Kaduna when the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna Chapter paid him a courtesy visit, Bashir said before the security situation worsened, the north west used to be “the live-wire of the country”.
“This zone, and all northern part is the live-wire of the country in terms of trading activities and revenue generation. This is even traced to the history of sub-Saharan trading routes domiciled in Kano, Chad, Burkina Faso, and so on and so forth.
“The volume of goods coming to the north was so much, but insecurity has reduced the cargo drastically. So I look at the zone as economic importance to the nation, and administratively too. We now have the dry port, national and international airports in the zone.
“But activities of Boko Haram and other security issues have hampered a lot of economic contributions from and with other countries in terms of economic activities in the zone.
“One area that we need to improve is community Customs relationships for information. The first problem I noticed when I took charge of this zone is lack of information from the communities to Customs.
‘We will reach out to the communities, leaders, traditional leaders and groups for adequate information.
We need to showcase to the people how to make proper exportation and importation.
“We intend to organize import and export seminars in the zone where relevant stakeholders will be invited to improve their services. This is going to be the first of its kind in the zone.”
Earlier, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna State Council, Yusuf Adamu assured the Customs Zone B Coordinator of the union’s readiness to partner with Customs for the development and progress of Nigeria.
