‘NIMASA, Customs Partnership Will Boost Nigeria’s Economic Progress’

By Eromosele Abiodun

The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has stated that NIMASA and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) are partners in progress in bringing the desired growth and development to the Nigerian maritime industry in particular and the Nigerian economy in general.

Petrerside stated this when he led NIMASA top management on a courtesy visit to the Comptroller General of the NCS Col. Hameed Ali (rtd.) at the Customs Headquarters in Abuja.

He described leadership of the two agencies as sticklers for transparency while doing things that will serve the best interest of the country.

 “The Nigerian Customs and NIMASA are both working to accomplish one purpose, which is to facilitate trade to our country, enhance the revenue of government and ensure that those who do business with us respect the laws of our land and that ultimately they don’t take advantage of our people. As we are all working towards a common purpose, this even becomes more glaring with the new leadership of our both agencies,” he said.

He also seized the opportunity to inform the NCS boss that NIMASA has started a process of restructuring and repositioning for the good of the sector in order to make it more business friendly, thereby attracting more investors to the country.

“In NIMASA there is a new wave of change in the same direction with the Customs. We are focused on delivering on our mandate to promote the participation of indigenous people in shipping in our country, give every Nigerian an opportunity and as well as ensure that our waterways are safe for business to thrive. In the course of doing our work, we have realised that it is inevitable that we must work with the Customs, that is the major reason for the visit,” he said.

In his response, Ali expressed optimism that the renewed partnership between both organs of Government will bring about the growth of the sector and the economy as a whole.

“Gone are the days that we feel we should do it alone, today the dynamics have changed, technology has given us a platform whereby we can achieve a lot, share information and also distribution of responsibility, I therefore feel NIMASA is one of the organisations we need to partner with so your coming is to strengthen the already existing relationship,” he said.

He also assured NIMASA of the readiness of the NCS to partner the agency in the aforementioned areas, noting that, “no single government agency can work alone; we all need to work together for the good of this country.”