The Tin Can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has said that it is ready to train not less than 1,500 officers of the command on trade facilitation and modern customs processes.
The command has also assured that as soon as it's newly built training facility at the command is officially commissioned; the command would train maritime journalists and other port operators on customs procedures.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily last week, Public Relations officer of the command, Mr. Uche Ejesieme said that the Comptroller of the command, Mr. Bashir Yussuf has declared his intentions to train the stakeholders but he is still awaiting the approval of the customs headquarters.
Our correspondent equally gathered that the Customs Comptroller General, Col. Hamid Ali (rtd) is expected to visit Lagos soon to commission the training centre.
Uche Ejesieme said that, "what we are doing right now is a pilot stage and driving the process pending when the Comptroller General would come and fully commission the place"
"We intend to train over 1,500 officers in the next few months, but right now we are still test-running the network and computers, we have to be sure that by the time the CGC comes, the computers would be working"
"These 1,500 officers are from our command alone, but we also intend to train other stakeholders including the media, the Controller has expressed intention, once he gets approval from customs headquarters, he has intention to train even other maritime operators on trade facilitation" he said
According to the customs spokesman, the training is targeted at sharpening the skills of the officers on ICT and modern customs procedures. Officers using the facility will be trained in batches at different times.
Areas like prevention of revenue leakages, maximum collection of duties for government, trade facilitation, inter agency cooperation using the single window platform and Nigeria Customs Information System (NICIS) will be covered by the exercise.
Other aspects of customs operations to be covered, according to sources shall include classification and refresher modules on basic customs training.
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