The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has collaborated with the Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) of the European Union (EU) for efficient export monitoring and trade facilitation.
During a meeting that took place at the NCS headquarters on Wednesday, the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, announced that the service is collaborating with DG TAXUD for efficiency in export monitoring and documentation.
Adeniyi requested a framework between Customs and DG TAXUD that can be used to verify and validate export commodities. He stated the service is interested in a digital platform that will enhance the validation of documents.
He said, “As part of our outreach program, we are also working with other agencies of the Nigerian government so that we maximize these opportunities. In the past, we’ve had goods from Nigeria returned because of quality, storage, and all of that.
“We’ve moved to establish a one-stop-shop export seat for export documentation so that it will help us reduce the time taken for Nigerian exporters to get their goods out of our port.
“Earlier this month, we launched the Time Release Studies, which we are targeting towards importing of goods and how much it takes for businessmen to clear their goods in the port.
“We are also going to launch a similar exercise to have a scientific measure of how long and how much it costs our businessmen to export their products. The most important part is to identify if there are bureaucratic modules, procedures, or laws that are creating delays so that people can get their things off our port with speed.
“My intention for us is to have a system that is better, faster, and easier for us to confirm your request within a very short period. I want us to talk about exportation like we all talk about importation.”
Also speaking, Gary Wilkinson, who works in the Rules of Origin in the Directorate-General Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) in the EU, said the tariff discount for exported products is four percent, so when Nigerian products are exported, they get a discount.
He said the team’s visit to Nigeria was part of an EU scheme for developing countries to ensure that products sent to the European Union are from the right source and origin.
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