Babalola: Increasing Nigeria Customs Revenue Attributable to Webb Fontaine’s IT Support

The Managing Director of Webb Fontaine in Nigeria, Ope Babalola told reporters in Lagos at the weekend that his company is committed to supporting Nigerian economy through bespoke ICT solutions that is helping the Nigeria Customs Service in revenue collection. He also spoke about how the Nigeria Customs Service’s revenue is sustained unhindered through the company’s activities despite the ongoing nationwide protests

The World Customs Organisation (WCO) recently appointed Webb Fontaine into its Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG). What does this imply and how can countries like Nigeria benefit from this?

Webb Fontaine is grateful for the appointment given us by the WCO. It is indeed a recognition of the excellent work that the company is doing in 25 countries and counting. We have striven to give excellent service for years, and we aim to continue to do so.

The purpose and scope of the PSCG is to inform and advise the WCO Secretary General, the Policy Commission, and WCO Members on Customs and international trade matters from the perspective of the private sector. The PSCG complements the vital contributions made by private sector Observers to WCO Committee meetings. Appointments are made on merit, based on recommendations from WCO council members and regional vice-chairs. We are proud of this membership and as a PSCG member, we are excited to be actively providing our valuable contributions to work of the group!

Sometime in May this year, you talked about Webb Fontaine procuring Starlink internet access to strengthen customs ICT for trade facilitation in Nigeria. Give us an update on this.

Webb Fontaine has been subject to the vagaries of our telecoms systems. As a result, some businesses people in Nigeria have decided to “go offline” and deploy Starlink, the internet provider owned by Elon Musk. We have pioneered this in a couple of sites and the initial signs are encouraging. We also understand that NCS is also testing independently in a couple of sites. We hope all this results in a better user experience for importers, agents and Customs officers. Our staff continues to monitor the situation.

In its recently released mid year report, the NCS announced a collection of N2.7 trillion and surpassed it’s half year target by 8 per cent. What role do you think ICT played in this and is WF in the picture of this achievement? 

We know that this cannot be achieved without IT. Command after command is reporting record revenues. 

And it’s not only that. The CGC today stated that despite the nationwide protests, Nigeria Customs will continue to provide services. Comptroller Olomu of Apapa reiterated the same for his command. This is because the Customs platform, NICIS II, is built as a paperless system and is fully automated. Our platforms in many other countries, using the same technology, operate as such. Because of that, it can withstand such disruptions. Agents, operators and declarants can all access the services online.  We have seen this in practice. During the covid lockdown, NCS was the only government agency that was actually generating revenue. In fact, that year was a huge increase in both revenues and number of declarations. 

Nigeria has commenced test run export trade under the AfCFTA regime, how do you think WF geospatial and cargo tracking regime can help countries in trans border transaction? 

We’re very excited about this! I personally believe that the future is Africa. Intra-African trade is less than 20 per cent of total trade conducted by African countries. This will encourage us to trade more internally. 

Our company is are way ahead of the existing deployments in the maritime and trade industries in Nigeria and many countries on the continent and we’re eager for an opportunity to showcase these to help Nigeria be a leader in the AfCFTA.  We already provide solutions in 12 African countries, and are prepared to do even more than that. Incidentally, both Republic of Benin and Niger use Webb Fontaine technology. This goes beyond geospatial and cargo tracking. We also have technology that can create and transmit data between countries in the continent, while providing statistics for governments to use for decision making and monitoring. Our existing and already deployed solutions can verify the integrity of origin for the purpose of protecting the tenets of the AfCFTA.

Your company has a robust and productive system in many other countries including neighbouring Benin Republic, leading to port efficiency, maximum revenue collection and other artificial intelligence related merits for trade. Why have you not replicated same in Nigeria?

We have deployed many improvements to Customs operations in Nigeria. You only have to talk to people who have been in the system for a few years. Thay can tell you the difference between what was and what presently exists. And we continue to make improvements as technologies change and improve, and as the nation’s needs evolve. 

I also need to express my gratitude to the ICT officers and the CG for the cooperation they have shown and given us. I wish I could name names but I don’t believe I can. They are really excellent men and women of integrity. 

It is important to note though, that our contract renewals for several years have taken a very tortuous path. Payments also tend to remain outstanding for years. It becomes difficult therefore to continue reinvesting as we need to and wish to. Nevertheless, we continue to provide our best services despite the constraints. NCS’s revenue profile for this year will testify to that.