By Chesa Chesa
In a bid to tighten all loose ends in the administration and management of the country’s Free Trade Zones, the two regulatory bodies, the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone Authority (OGFZA), as well as Nigeria Economic Zones Association (NEZA) and the Nigeria Customs Service have agreed to remodel the scheme’s processes and procedures for greater impact on the economy.
This agreement was reached when the Managing Director/CEO of NEPZA, Prof. Adesoji Adesugba; his counterpart in OGFZA, Sen. Tijjani Kaura; and Mr Toyin Elegbede, Executive-Secretary of NEZA, paid a working visit to the Acting Comptroller-General of Customs, Mr. Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, in Abuja, at the weekend.
Adesugba described Adeniyi’s appointment as a boost for the industry, noting that the growth of the scheme was largely stunted due to years of uncooperative posture of the Customs’ top leadership.
The NEPZA boss explained that it was incumbent on the Nigeria Customs Service to help the regulatory bodies drive the success of the free trade ecosystem by allowing seamless trade facilitation across the landscape.
“We are here to first felicitate with you on your appointment by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We are elated that this appointment came from within the service and we pray that this culture is sustained.
“Since my appointment in 2020 as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NEPZA, this is the first time that Customs honoured our request for a courtesy visit. This evidenced how uncooperative the former leadership was toward the overall success of the scheme.
“We are all now in agreement that only a collaborative partnership among the key stakeholders can reposition the scheme to begin to have significant impact in the economy and for global competitiveness,’’ the NEPZA chief executive said.
Adesugba, therefore, added that a Joint Committee comprising of members from NEPZA, OGFZA, NEZA and NCS was urgently required to address all the teething challenges affecting the smooth operation of the scheme.
On his part, Kaura explained that the regulatory bodies and all the free trade zones’ stakeholders were willing to establish a more cohesive and collaborative partnership with customs, and that such partnership had already been established between the two regulatory bodies and with all the free trade zones’ investors through NEZA.
The OGFZA boss further stated that the Joint Committee would be in the right position to deal with all the key issues that would be listed as the Terms of Reference (ToR).
“We want the customs leadership to understand that the Free Trade Zone is a unique economic landscape guided by both the Act of Parliament and Global Rules and Regulations. Any country that seeks to adopt it must also be prepared to accept these rules.
“We are happy that the service now has an individual who is a professional in Investment Promotion, Investors Relations & Services as well as Trade Facilitations. We again, thank His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for giving us such a complete professional and it is indeed a new dawn for us,’’ Kaura said.
The Acting Comptroller-General, expressed his delight over the visit, noting that the Free Trade Zones scheme could be used to realistically drive the nation’s economy.
Adeniyi said that the suggestion for the setting up of a Joint Committee to remodel the processes and procedures to manage the various administrative engagements among key stakeholders was a novelty, and that all hands must be on deck to salvage the country’s ailing economy through the scheme.
“I must, however, state that we should also study and re-evaluate our various Acts to see those areas of conflicts and overlapping functions and to assiduously work toward amending them”, he added.
