Esther Oritse
Lagos — The Nigeria Customs Service has concluded plans to digitalise the acquisition and renewal of its licences and other permits through an automated platform, aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and service delivery.
Recall that the 3-point agenda of the leadership of the Customs Service are consolidation collaboration and innovation.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ engagement on the Automation of Licenses and Permits, Comptroller Ngozika Anozie, Controller License and Permit Unit, Tariff and Trade Department, said that automation of every process in Customs procedures is essentially keying into the global best practices.
Anozie also said that the automated process will bring about ease of doing business in the maritime sector specifically and would translate into boosting generation of the much-needed revenue for Customs and the Federal Nigeria.
She said: “Automation will save importers, clearing and forwarding agents the stress of acquiring or renewing their Licenses and Permits as they would be sitting in the comfort of their offices/homes to initiate and complete the process.
“Officers and men of License and Permit Unit, the bond seat unit of various Commands will also be saved some stress, as all their responsibilities would just be ‘clicks’ on the systems in front of their desks, as opposed to carrying loads of files from one table to another and from one office to the other.
“Automation will cut the cost of doing business and minimize movement risks for our stakeholders. They would no longer be jumping on buses or flights to and fro Customs Headquarters-Abuja, paying hotel bills plus feeding for days, to obtain or renew their licenses and permits.
“Automation will minimize, if not eradicate fraudulent practices in the system, as every single document that is uploaded in the course of this process will be automatically rejected by default, if it is fake and accepted if it is genuine.
“License and Permit can now view assessments through the B’Odogwu to be sure that any company applying for fresh or renewal of licences or permits is not having unpaid assessments hanging on it.
“Our stakeholders will now have the luxury of using the time they would have expended running from one Command to the other or to Customs headquarters Abuja, to achieve other equally useful objectives in their business value chain that would impact the growth and expansion of their businesses.
“Ultimately, this automation will enhance the statutory revenue generation duties of the Nigeria Customs Service, because fees are paid into the coffers of government with every single licence and permit processed; imports are made with the permits, the clearing processes are stamped with the licences given and obviously, revenue is generated. So, the more licences and permit we issue or renew, the more revenue we would generate for NCS and Nigeria economy.
“Automation elicits more efficiency and productivity from the officers as they leverage on the seamlessness of the process to work on more documents in minutes with greater output. The advantages of automation are just endless.”
Also speaking, Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, Zonal Coordinator, Zone A, Muhammed Babandede, said that automation would help in processing applications faster
“Status of your application would be easily tracked every time”, he said.
