 Okay, it's time for us to take a look at our very first hot topic. Well, we have been told that smugglers have lost 1.51 billion naira in eight months. And we have been joined by CSC Abdul-Lahi Aliou, Aliou Maywada, Chief Superintendent and National PRO, the Nigerian Custom Service. Good morning to you, CSC Abdul-Lahi Maywada. Good morning to you and good morning viewers. Okay, so when I saw that news, that piece of news, I wondered, is this good news or bad news for the economy? I think it's good news for obvious reasons. Number one, for you to effectively collect revenue or generate the requisite revenue for national development, you need to make sure that all illicit trades are not allowed to have their way into Nigeria. Now, we have three fundamental functions that has to do with the one trade facilitation, revenue generation and anti-smuggling. Each they are what I would call they are interwoven and interrelated. If you decide to abandon one, then two suffer. Just a simple example is how tripod work. If you remove one leg of a tripod, definitely the tripod will not stand. So when you hit on smugglers, when you decide to do effective anti-smuggling along the land borders and seaport, definitely you facilitate legitimate trade and revenue also upscale. So those are the three functions that are interrelated and interwoven. And you have to do each at the same time to get the holistic result. Okay, so when these things, let's talk about these losses to the smugglers and how they have become beneficial to our national economy. First of all, some of the things we've seen, especially when you talk about oil for instance, when they are caught, the illegal miners and those who still crewed across the sea, we find that they burn the goods. Something many Nigerians have cried against repeatedly. And it does appear that that same thing that happens with the customs. When you confiscate some of these things that are not expired goods, what do you do with them? How do you translate them or transform them into something beneficial to the economy? Well, if I may say it, the management of seizure of confiscated goods in Nigeria Customs Service, there are requisite laws and guidelines and SOP as well as standard operating procedure in managing all the seized items. Number one, when you apprehend those items, definitely you have to, on the investigation, if there are suspects, you need to prosecute them and if you have to build a case file for those items. Now, the last end is for you to secure court condemnation. That court condemnation will give you the mandate to dispose those items. Now, these items are of different categories. You have items that are perishable. You have items that are flammables. And you have items that, ordinarily, you cannot even put them in your warehouses because of their nature, maybe they are combustible or whatever. And you have items because of their size, you would do what you call constructive warehousing. Now, if you get those items, if those items are perishable items, there are procedures you follow in line with them. In collaboration, definitely you can dispose those items that are perishable immediately. If they are perishable, if they are volatile items, items that are a little bit very, very difficult, very combustible, flammable, let me use this word, you instantly dispose those items and the money is paid to the federation, to the fees, as fees to federation account. Example is PMS. We do intercept PMS that are meant for smuggling outside the country. And immediately we dispose those items in tandem with the law. And those items are, the money is paid to the federal government. Now, consumable items. The first thing you do to consumable items is to determine whether those items are fit for consumption. And for you to determine whether those items are fit for consumption, you need to get the relevant agency to certify that those items are fit for consumption. After certification, like rice, like other items, we do hand over to orphanage homes to displace persons and so on. Those are the things. Even those items that are spoiled and not fit for consumption, like rice, that is spoiled, we give those items on three products. So we do that. So it's not that we just, but when we realize that item is not fit for consumption, definitely that items will be destroyed. EG, there are some categories of poultry products imported or smuggled into Nigeria. If you know the condition in which they smuggle those items, you won't even allow your dog to eat those items and we won't. So those items are destroyed and will not allow anybody to consume those items. These chemicals used to preserve whatever, preserve dead body or whatever you call it. They use that to preserve those items. They don't even come in a frozen and it's hardly difficult. So those items, we don't allow anybody to consume it. We destroy those items instantly after following the requisite procedure. Nader, you're saying this brings to mind the issues that we've heard regarding frozen foods. The frozen foods we have, frozen chicken, frozen turkey, frozen fish, how safe are they for consumption? Are they part of the ones that escaped customs? The ones we have in the country today? Well, the issue of frozen fish. There is what we call quota, fish quota, that are procedures for importing fish into Nigeria. We have our own quota and we have to meet the national consumption. A quota is being designated and those items are only imported through the sea ports. They don't come in through the land borders. So when we see a frozen fish, a container of frozen fish or poultry products, definitely because there is no facility to checkmate those items. Just the same way with medicaments. Medicaments are also not allowed to come in through the land borders. In fact, there are designated ports that are meant for these items to come in through. So fish has a quota and that quota is what is given and located to the importers of fish to bring in, to meet up with the local demands. So it's not just arbitrary importation of fish like that and it's through the sea ports not land borders. Okay, so I guess it's the EFC, the NAFDAC, a beg your pardon, that may have to be and the consumer protection rights as well that may be in the best position to let us know how safe some of these ones will find in different stores are. But let's talk about the security of the borders. We've known over the years that our borders are quite porous. How much of a challenge is this still today? Has it improved from what we knew five years ago? Well, one of our functions is to suppress smuggling to the bearers minimum. And we cannot in any way believe or say that we have completely eradicated smuggling. It will be very difficult to do that. Our role is to suppress these activities to the bearers minimum. If you are elite at the level, yes, we have a very vast and porous land borders. However, with the adequate use of intelligence and collaboration with agencies and the strategic use of deployment of technology, we have substantially suppressed smuggling to the bearers minimum within our nation borders. This can be seen very glaring in the seizures we are recording day in, day out. This seizures can be seizures of drugs, seizures of Indian him, seizures of Amination, seizures of even consumable such as rice and other items. So we are doing everything possibly to man the border. However, I will say there is room for improvement. And that room for improvement makes the system now to try to improve in the use of innovation and technology. We are planning to deploy geospatial apparatus to man our borders. We are moving into e-borders now where you can have infrared and those infrared can be used. You can deploy drones and so on. So part of the process of end-to-end modernization of the Nigerian Custom Service is to make sure that we are maximally deploying latest technology to man our borders. And in Newcastle, you will see some scanners, mobile scanners or trick scanners in some of our land borders. We already have three major seaports, Tinkan, Apapa, and Potakwa in Oane. And very soon you will see the revisiting of this kind of technologies in most of our approved border posts. Now the problem is manning the unapproved routes. We will continue to be ahead of them and if they devises and we will be ahead of them and tackle the manners of smuggling both across the western planks and the northern planks because anti-smuggling in the northern part of Nigeria is quite different from what you do in the southern part because the geography of those areas are quite distinct and the nature of smugglers are quite distinct. So we are deploying every strategy to make sure that we have effectively manned our borders. Thank you. Where do we have the worst borders? Isn't this east on the north or the west? Well, the context of worst is contextual and I don't want to go into this one, it's the worst and this is the best. This is easy to handle. Each have their peculiarities. For instance, if you move to the northern borders, it's about porosity. What I mean by porosity, it's a very vast land border across a very arid area, close to Saharan area. So it's an area where you have very few vegetation and a very vast land. So for you to cover that vast land is very difficult. Starting from KB down to Sokoto, down to Katsuna, down to Jigawa, down to Yobi, down to Meduguri. Those are borders that are very wide. If you go to Meduguri alone, it has borders with three countries, with the Cameroon, with the Niger Republic and with Chad. So I think that is the peculiarity lies on the geography. Now if you move to the southern borders, this is where you see thick vegetation. This is where you see vegetation as very thick and where it's somehow very difficult to access. Accessibility to those areas is very difficult. These are areas also you can see some commonality with them. Maybe using motorbikes to smuggle or to ferry in these kind of smuggle items into Nigeria. Some use motorbikes where our vehicles may not be able to reach. For instance also the condition of, I mean, the nature of whether we are in the rainy season or the climate also determine how difficult it will be to manage smuggling. Now it's in the rainy season. You realize that maybe in the south now some of these areas are not motorable. So it's also difficult on the smugglers and also difficult on the Nigeria Custom Service. So those are the just peculiarities, but I cannot scientifically say this is worse, this is the best. But both areas have their own unique challenges that we are confronting with. So clearly you do have serious challenges, manning the borders and controlling the things that come in. Because of these peculiar challenges that you've talked about. What is the level of synergy that exists between the customs and the security agencies manning the different borders, you know, across the country? I would like to refer to the one of the core policy trust of the present control agent of Customs which has to do with collaboration. He has three policies, policy trust. One is innovation, collaboration and consolidation. And consolidation is about building on what someone have done in the past and look at all those challenges and build on that to make the system better. Now the issue of collaboration, one of the cardinal things we have to feel it's very important to us is collaborate with sister agencies. We cannot do it alone and no agency can do it alone. Now the CGC have decided to, in his, some of the visits he has visited, the Chief of Army staff, and the core issue behind the visit is collaboration. He has visited the Inspector General of Police and one of the demands he made is that there are a lot of multiple checkpoints, along with the Lagos Abidjan corridor, which is from mile two to semi, which is a very strategic area when it comes to trade through the land borders in Nigeria. Because it's one of the major land border we have that has what we call a dual border system, which we call a system that connects two borders together between two countries. I don't want to use the technical and technical terminology so that people understand. So that combination makes it very important, very germane in trade facilitation. And the IG believe that what the CGC has raised is right. And they even promised to move together to come and visit that border area and see the wipe-up of all the illegal checkpoints, by customs or other agencies or police, and they promised to do that. So that is an area of collaboration. And today there will be an MOU that will be signed between Nigeria Customs Service and Federal Safety Corps. And what is it? If you have decided to smuggle vehicles into Nigeria, and we have integrated our system with Federal Safety Corps, in such a way that your vehicle will not be registered. And at the time you want to register a smuggle vehicle, there will be a lot to custom system, and you will not get your vehicle registered. And it can be, it can be apprehended. So if you have succeeded in smuggling vehicles, now we are using collaboration to use that synergy, that interagency collaboration, to make sure that even after smuggling, we will be able to get those smuggle vehicles from you. So it's something, it's just a teaser. The proper event is coming in coming up later in the day, around 3 p.m. and you will see an MOU that is coming between us. Last week the CDC also visited the Director of State Services and the Director General. And the visit is about collaboration. So we believe we cannot do it alone. We cannot do it alone. Collaboration with stakeholders, collaboration with sister agencies, collaboration with host communities. We believe when we are on the same page with these host communities, they will not harbour smuggling. They will be on our side. They will believe that what we are doing is for them. So collaboration is one of the key mantras of policy trust of the Acutin Continental Personnel. And the system that you are concerned with is believed in that. And we believe that is the only way we can succeed. Indeed, I hear these efforts and I think they are laudable. However, I think we should also look at the main causes for smuggling. If we are going to fix this thoroughly, we may have to need, in fact, we would need to fix the main causes of smuggling. High taxes and customs duties. How should we fix this? This is 63rd anniversary we are celebrating as a people. And there are some things that we should have actually dealt with to a great extent that in 2023, we shouldn't be experiencing certain levels of illegalities. How do we fix? Because people will import, whether I would like it or not. And I imagine that some of the people who are importing illegally would have probably loved to import legally. So how do we put an end to this high level of illegal importation? High taxes, customs duty. Well, you are talking about high taxes and whatever we collect is a product of fiscal policy of the government. And the government do not develop fiscal policies arbitrarily. It is something that is done meticulously because you look at so many indices before you arrive at a particular policy. Now, we are responsible for implementing fiscal policies of the government. And we do not formulate policies. We do not decide this is the percentage of duty to be collected. However, it's our responsibility when implementing the policy to educate people to sensitize them why they need to key into the fiscal policies of the federal government. Because we are part of the government also, because we are serving the nation and we are rendering service to the nation. So it's our honor to explain to Nigerians why these things are where they are and how they are. Sometimes it's not a product of maybe high tax, maybe it's a product of maybe exchange rates. Why don't we look into the issue of encouraging exportation instead of always one way important items into Nigeria? If we keep on saying that we must import before we survive, then I think the distance of our nearer will continue to diminish. And the price will be on our nearer and why dollar will continue to appeal because these items are imported in dollars. And these duty collection are calculated in dollars. The CIF value of items imported that is cost insurance and freight of vehicle to arrive at the customer in dollar. And now the stress is on dollar. So when you export, definitely you are boosting your portfolio for the exit. Let's think on how we can manufacture. Let's think on how we can export Nigerian finished products outside Nigeria. Then in the area of what are we doing to ensure that these items, the taxes or whatever people are doing. I feel sometimes when the implement policies you need to explain, you need to persuade, you need to strike a balance between enforcement and persuasion. It's not always that it must be kinetic, it must be force for you to implement. Sometimes when you sit down and explain to Nigerians, Nigerians are very understanding. They need explanation to understand why they are doing this. If you have a duty on vehicle, when you explain to Nigerians that we have national automatic policy. And that automatic policy is about how do we assemble vehicles in Nigeria. That's why duty and charges are imposed on imported Tecumbo. Let me use Tecumbo. Emphatically use vehicles into Nigeria. Why not we think of going back to that 80s where we have a Pejo automobile. Where we use 504. Where we use the best line, evolution and so on, assemble in Nigeria. So those are the things these policies are trying to drive us into. So if we explain to Nigerians, it's not only about imposing taxes for the sake of collection of duty. There are motives behind this importation of this vehicle. That's why you have exemptions, you have waivers. Waivers and exemptions are meant for people important to manufacture. So that's why you have a section, the chapter 99 of the CET Common Accident, that have been activated. The reason for the activation is to allow for importers who are importing raw materials to process into finished goods to be able to do that. So I feel we need to look at the issue holistically. And that is when we realize that some of these policies are meant for wood. It might not be an immediate something, but in the future we'll be able to reap better and we'll have a better economy and a better nation. So do you also have a free customs duty on farm equipment and machines? Of course. For raw materials imported, there are activated chapters in the tariff that are meant for you when you are importing raw materials. There are schemes that are meant for to encourage manufacturing. There is all the manufacture, import scheme and so many things that are, ordinarily if you are importing finished goods you will not have the opportunity to leverage on those items. So let's bring in raw materials, process them into finished goods, add value to raw materials, we create jobs and we export outside Nigeria and gain more foreign exchange. That is my advice. The dream of most Nigerians is to have the manufacturing sector very, very highly active and competitive. Most Nigerians will patronize locally made goods if we have enough of them to choose from. But even the sector man, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria are crying right now that the economy, the environment is no longer conducive for them to operate. Some of them have shut down and some have lost their staff. What do you say to the government with regards to that? What I can say is I don't want to digress from my co-functions as a custom officer. My plea to them is that whatever we do to facilitate trade and legitimate trade to encourage importers of these raw materials to manufacture will do it. That is why of recent the Contola General of Kutom has decided to come up with the issue of authorizing economic operators. If you find a reason to be part of AU, it will be a very good thing for you. So we are now going from fast track to AU and the issue of advanced ruling is coming in. Those are mechanisms put in place to encourage trade facilitation. We have interaction with people from the free trade zones like the heads of AUXA and NEVSA. We met there are some issues that there is that has to do with Nigeria for some studies. Committee was set up and based on that committee were able to resolve some issues. All these issues are to facilitate trade. So we will do everything within the ambit of our power, within our functions, within our responsibilities to encourage manufacturing, to encourage trade facilitation, to also encourage exports. That is why presently we have dedicated timelapse for exports and we are planning to make sure that all exports sits in our various command at the seaports are collapsed into that dedicated terminal. So that people exporting items onto Nigeria outside Nigeria will find it very easy and seamless. Thank you. I think that's a perfect note to wrap up this discussion. CSC Abdulahi Ali Mewadah, Chief Superintendent and National PRO, Nigeria Custom Service. Thank you so much for your time and insight this morning. Thank you for the opportunity to educate Nigeria. Alright, so we'll take a break and come back with our second hot topic. Stay with us.