Senior Customs Officers Urges FG to Halt Controversial $3.2bn Modernisation Project

Eromosele Abiodun

Senior officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) have called on President Bola Tinubu to stop the controversial $3.2bilion customs modernisation project, also known as e-customs, being promoted by the Comptroller General of NCS, Col. Hameed Ali, (Rtd.)

In a letter by a group of concerned customs officers, seen by THISDAY, the president was informed that the project amounts to a concession of customs modernisation for 20 years and will result in some persons with vested interest taking away government revenue under the Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) account 

The officers described the customs modernisation that is already a subject of litigation in the Federal High Court as a channel to waste government revenue.

Faulting the award of the modernisation concession, the group alleged that the company handling it was hurriedly registered, without the required technical experience and could set the gains achieved by the service backwards.

According to them, the NCS is presently one of the most automated government agency in the country with a homegrown Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS) that only requires upgrade to meet the demands of current reality. 

They added that NCS is the most modernised customs administration in West and Central Africa handling the highest volume of trade relying on a blend of technology and human expertise while querying an intended loan facility for modernisation that will impoverish the country.

They claimed that using the existing modernisation template of the service, the NCS has been able to move from generating N800 billion in 2015 to collecting N2 trillion in 2022 without the controversial concession.

The group said over 3,500 officers of the Nigeria Customs Service have been trained while 150 of them are presently undergoing technical training on various aspects of  modernisation required for trade.

Bionica Technologies, had dragged the federal government and the Nigeria Customs Service before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

Also sued by Bionica are the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning; the Infrastructure Concession & Regulatory Commission (ICRC); Trade Modernisation Project Limited (TMPL); Huawei Technologies (Nigeria); Bergmans Security Consultants and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).

Bionica accused the defendants of illegally replacing it as the lead promoter of the Customs modernisation project earlier approved by former President Muhammadu Buhari

In a memo dated September 17, 2019 signed by late Chief of Staff to the former President, Abba Kyari, the Ministers of Finance and Justice were informed that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the engagement of Bionica Technologies West Africa (lead sponsor), Bergmans Security Consultant & Supplies Ltd (co-sponsor), Africa Finance Corporation (lead financier) and Huawei (lead technical service provider) to establish a special purpose vehicle to enter a 20-year concession arrangement with the Nigeria Customs Service and the ICRC for the Customs modernisation project with the aim of establishing a paperless Customs administration, the so-called e-Customs.

After President Buhari’s approval, the relationship between Bionca and Bergmans went sour. The dispute between the two companies reportedly arose over shareholding structure of the original SPV named E-Customs HC Project Limited.

On May 17, 2022, the Nigeria Customs Service announced the signing of the e-Customs public-private partnership contract with Trade Modernisation Project Limited (TMPL). In the announcement, Bergmans was reportedly recognised as the sponsor of the e-Customs project instead of Bionica.

The announcement was sequel to the incorporation of TMPL as the new SPV for the Customs modernisation project rather than the E-Customs (HC) Project Limited registered by Bionica approved by the Federal Government for the project.

Bionica was not included in TPML, which was registered on April 7, 2022 – less than eight weeks before it replaced E-Custom (HC) Project Limited as the SPV for the e-Customs project. The officials of Bionica allege that TMPL’s lead sponsor, Bergmans did not participate in the project development and bidding phase but was somehow brought into the project in 2018 by Customs Comptroller-General, Hameed Ali.

“Our service is a regimented institution with sensitive roles to play in national security and economy and should not be distracted by an endless fight between companies struggling to benefit from modernising us. This is a big distraction and an impending setback, only the president can stop, “they said in the petition.