Shettima Decorates New Customs CG, Says Appointment Will Boost Officers’ Morale

•Adeniyi: We’ll deploy innovation to drive new customs operations

•Vice-president says FG Will create one million jobs for young Nigerians

Deji Elumoye and James Emejo  in Abuja

Vice President Kashim Shettima, has decorated the Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), describing the appointment of Mr Adewale Adeniyi by President Bola Tinubu as morale booster for officers in the service.

On his part, Adeniyi, who thanked the president fort his appointment, however, claimed that the Customs Service could still live to its full potentials, when it starts bringing in more innovation to drive its operations.

In another development, Shettima has disclosed that the federal government had finalised plans to create one million jobs for young Nigerians.

Speaking yesterday during  a brief ceremony witnessed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, at the State House, Abuja, the Vice President, stated: “Congratulations for bringing professionalism back to the Nigerian Customs Service.

“Now, every Customs officer can aspire to occupy the pinnacle of his or her profession. I wish you well, on behalf of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Congratulations, once again,” Shettima added.

Adeniyi, on his part, said, “In the last eight years, the Nigeria Customs Service has gone through a period of transition. In some areas, we recorded progress – we made remarkable progress in e-Customs; we made a lot of breakthroughs in capacity building.

“But the Customs Service can still live to its full potential when we bring in more innovation to drive Customs operations. These are the kind of things we are looking at in the years ahead.

“We are going to be professional in our approach, there are a number of key stakeholders that we are going to be working with, it is a very onerous task but we are going to be working alongside other stakeholders and partners that we have identified.

“We intend to come up with innovations that will carry along all partners and stakeholders. We are going to leverage technology and innovation to break new grounds in Customs operations.”

Meanwhile, Shettima, while playing host to a delegation from the Republic of Korea led by the Special Envoy to the President, H.E. Jang Sungmin, at the State House, Abuja, declared, “We want to create one million jobs in the digital world.”

He therefore, canvassed for collaboration with the Republic of Korea towards achieving the goal of digital training of youths, saying, “75% of Nigerians are below the age of 35, so we are soliciting for your partnership and support in digital skills training for our young people.

“India earned $120 billion last year from global outsourcing and we are in a unique position to take advantage of the opportunities in the sector. We need the skills set, we need the technology to drive the process and yours is a technology that we can embrace.”

The vice-president reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to strengthening relations with Republic of Korea especially in promoting trade, technology transfer and maintaining global peace.

“Nigeria and Korea have a very robust bilateral relationship that is anchored on years of mutual trust and cooperation. A lot of Korean companies are doing business in Nigeria especially in the area of oil and gas. Six of our LNG trains were constructed by Korean companies.

“We are fully committed to a very robust relationship between our nations. We need to learn a lot from Korea especially in the areas of manufacturing and agriculture. You are a success story worthy of emulation by all developing nations,” he said.

Earlier, the Special Envoy of the President of the Republic of Korea (H.E. Yoon Suk Yeol), Mr. Jang Sungmin, who congratulated Nigeria for the successful inauguration of the new government, conveyed special invitation from President Yoon to his Nigerian counterpart, Bola Tinubu, to attend the forthcoming Africa-Korea Summit in South Korea.

He also restated his country’s continuous support for Nigeria across different sectors, noting that Korea’s “collaboration with Nigeria can lead the 4th Industrial Revolution,” and maintained that the country’s “development is akin to Nigeria’s development.”