No fewer than 300 officers of the Tin Can Island Port command of the Nigeria Customs Service have been trained at the new Information Communication Technology (ICT) centre established recently by the command.
Controller of the command, Comptroller Bashar Yusuf while speaking in chat with SHIPS & PORTS DAILY in his office said the command has equally established a clinic facility for its officers and other stakeholders of the command.
He said although the facilities are yet to be commissioned by the customs management, they have commenced operation with the clinic facility opened daily including weekends.
Speaking on the ICT training centre, Public Relations Officer of the command, Uche Ejesieme said 30-seater capacity training centre is aimed at sharpening and improving the officers’ skills in modern customs procedure and IT for trade facilitation.
Some aspects to be covered in the training according to Ejesieme include valuation, classification, risk management, profiling and the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information Centre (NICIS) as well as ASYCUDA.
He said the training of the officers’ will also help drive the command revenue generation profile and be in line with global best practices.
“In consideration of the strategic nature of Tin Can Island Port to revenue generation and trade facilitation, the CAC established the training centre. The training centre is to cater for the training needs of all the officers particularly the releasing officers, chief examiners and Deputy Comptrollers in charge of terminals.
“The trainers are more concerned on issues of valuation and others tools that customs uses for trade facilitation in line with global emphasis. The emphasis at the WCO is that all customs administration must align with the goals of WCO and everything is geared at trade facilitation,” he said.
He added that the training will also be extended to other stakeholders and journalists to understand customs procedure after the formal launch of the ICT centre by the Customs CG.
“We are also going to extend the training to other stakeholders and members of the media. They are our dependable ally. Customs cannot do much without the support of the media,” he said.
Ejesieme added that the clinic facility is also opened to stakeholders including clearing agents operating at the command to care for emergency situations.
He said the drugs at the clinic are sold at subsidize rate to make it affordable to all.
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