The Nigeria Customs Service, Lagos Free Trade Zone Command, on Wednesday, 26 June 2024, in Lagos, engaged with the enterprises and other stakeholders on the role of Customs in Free Trade Zones.
In attendance were the Managing Director, Lekki Free Zone Development Company(LFZDC) Zhang Bin, representatives of other zones’ management and sister agencies, as well as enterprise stakeholders.
In his address, the Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Olanrewaju Olumoh, stated that the gathering is a fallout of his familiarisation tour shortly after taking over and in line with the policy thrust of the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC) Adewale Adeniyi, which centres on Consolidation, Collaboration and Innovation.
“We are taking a proactive step to see how we can broaden our understanding of all the procedures. The Customs leadership under the CGC is very passionate about the free zone. He recognises the free zone as a promising avenue for promoting Made in Nigeria goods, and he cherishes good stakeholder engagement.
“We in Lagos free zone, we recognise you to be the driving force that sustains the nation’s economy, and it’s very important for us to be on the same page together,” he added.
Speaking on revenue generation of the Command, the CAC expressed optimism about meeting the revenue target for the year.
“Our revenue is going on very well. We had an initial target of N108 billion, later moved to N136 billion. So far, we have had N41 billion in that aspect and in our Deep Sea Port, from the N8 billion that is expected, we already have about N74 billion, so cumulatively, the command has generated about N115 billion, and we are very optimistic that before the year runs out, we are going to meet and even surpass our revenue target,” Olumoh stated.
Stakeholders described the session as insightful while also commending the effort of the service in facilitating trade.
