The Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Abudullahi Dikko has said that new crop of customs officers were being trained to take over the Destination Inspection (DI) Services in June.
Dikko disclosed this to newsmen after officials of the World Bank visited the customs headquarters, to ascertain the level of the service’s preparedness to take over the destination inspection from service providers.
He said that most of the newly recruited staff had been trained in various areas of specialisation, to ensure effective management of the service.
The Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Abudullahi Dikko has said that new crop of customs officers were being trained to take over the Destination Inspection (DI) Services in June.
Dikko disclosed this to newsmen after officials of the World Bank visited the customs headquarters, to ascertain the level of the service’s preparedness to take over the destination inspection from service providers.
He said that most of the newly recruited staff had been trained in various areas of specialisation, to ensure effective management of the service.
“What we observed is that the people are not ready to train our own officers, so we took the bull by the horn by hiring some consultants to train our officers,'' he said.
Dikko said the visit was at the instance of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
“They are here to assess our preparedness to take over from service providers; they want to access our site and see our state of gap analysis.
“They will also assess the service providers to know their contribution to the contract agreement with the government in the last seven years.
“They are going to assess the scanners, the capacity building level and the platform we are working on,’’ he said.
Earlier, the Leader of the World Bank delegation, Mr Ramesh Siva had said that the aim of the visit was to see how to help the Nigeria Custom Service work out what they will need to get ready to take on more responsibilities.
“So far, it looks as if they are well prepared but we still have to have some more detailed discussion, to understand how ready they are,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that in December 2012, the Federal Government extended by six months, the seven-year contract awarded in 2006 to three service providers for Destination
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