The Nigeria Customs Service in collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has set up measures to mitigate the root of corruption amongst non-compliant traders and officers.
The collaboration followed a courtesy visit of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi to the Chairman of the ICPC, Musa Adamu, where conversations on proactive strategies against corruption were discussed.
Addressing the ICPC, Adeniyi sought the agency’s cooperation, as the government’s critical witness to take an in-depth look at areas prone to corruption, to ensure that trade facilitation and the ease of doing business is enhanced in the country.
Speaking about his successes since he assumed office in 2023, CGC Adeniyi said, “We’ve achieved a 70% increase in revenue generation in the last one year; paid attention to our security mandates, and we are doing our best to ensure that we keep the bad guys out of our borders.”
“We believe that it is also possible for us to take a second look at areas that are prone to corruption and the integrity gaps by ourselves, to tackle them and bring back the glory of the country in terms of trade facilitation and ease of doing businesses.”
The Customs Boss, however, expressed optimism that through forming a strong alliance between the two agencies, their aims to fight corrupt practices will be easier, as it will aid them in discharging their mandates, “So, this is why I felt that we need to put ICPC amongst those critical agencies of government that’s we are collaborating with.” He added.
“This is why we felt we needed a partnership with an agency like yours to teach transparency into our system. And we believe that, once we make it possible to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the Nigeria Customs Service and ICPC, we will achieve this in a number of ways in terms of specific areas.”
On his part, the Chairman of ICPC, Adamu, appreciated the move of the Customs Services to partner with the commission to mitigate the menace of corrupt practices in Nigeria.
According to him, ICPC has achieved numerous milestones in preventing corruption and paving the way for partnering with stakeholders to ensure a prosperous Nigeria.
He said, “I believe the responsibility to promote the image of this country is reposed on our shoulders, and only through sanitising Nigeria as well as collaborating with NCS, will we achieve greatness.”
According to the Chairman, one of the ways to achieve the fight against corruption is to organise capacity building for traders and stakeholders to train them on how to avoid being into what would be considered sabotage to the national economy.