The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said that it lost N1.3trillion in 2023 due to waivers and concessions that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration granted to investors.
Comptroller General of the NCS, Adewale Adeniyi, made the disclosure at the National Assembly yesterday, also noted that it was not privy to details of the Customs $3.2bn modernisation project.
Adeniyi was represented by the Deputy Comptroller-General, Mba Musa, at a public hearing organised by the Senate Joint Committees scrutinising the 2024–2026 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper, (FSP).
During the hearing, the senators inquired from the Customs Comptroller-General, (CG) about the details of the agreement signed by the federal government on the modernisation of Nigeria Customs.
Recall that the Federal Executive Council had in April 2023 approved the Nigeria Customs Service modernisation project, also known as e-customs, despite a court order restraining the Federal Government from going on with the initiative.
Buhari’s administration specifically approved the implementation of the Customs modernisation project to a concessionaire.
The concessionaire was granted to Bergman Securities Consultant and Suppliers Limited as the project sponsor, Africa Finance Corporation UFC as the lead financier, and Huawei Technologies was named as the lead technical service provider.
However, stakeholders knocked the project, saying it’s to mortgage the future of the service and also inimical to national security.
Mba told the lawmakers that “NCS would have generated more revenue to the nation’s Consolidated Revenue Fund in 2023 if not for the waivers and concessions arrangements.”
Not comfortable with the arrangement, Musa, the Chairman of the Joint Committee, said the Senate would commence investigation into granting of waivers and concessioning in the country.
