Hammed Ibrahim Ali, Comptroller General of Customs, who made the commendation during a recent working visit to BAT’s factory in Ibadan, Oyo State, particularly lauded the company’s role in Nigeria’s socio-economic development through its corporate social investment arm, the BATN Foundation.
“BATN is one of the excise companies that generate huge revenue for us and I look forward to greater synergy between us,” Ali said.
He noted that with the dwindling revenue from oil, President Muhammadu Buhari had charged the Customs Service and the Federal Inland Revenue Service with the task of generating revenue for the country, adding that the visit was to check on all industries that were major sources of revenue for government.
Chris McAllister, managing director, BATN, while highlighting the company’s landmark achievements in the country over the years, said the $150 million Memorandum of Understanding it signed with the Nigerian government in 2001 had been pivotal in its investment drive.
That investment, he said, has more than doubled in the last 13 years with the establishment of a state-of-the-art factory in Ibadan, the leaf threshing plant in Zaria and the company’s new West Africa head office building in Ikoyi, Lagos.
He also emphasized ways in which the company, through the BATN Foundation, has significantly impacted on the socio-economic development of rural communities through the establishment of several agricultural projects spread across the federation, adding that BAT was one of the biggest contributors to Customs excise as well as the biggest exporter of finished consumer goods.
McAllister said the company has been grappling with myriads of challenges, including illicit trade and the influx of flavoured cigarettes (apple, strawberry and chocolate), all of which impact negatively on its contribution to the Federal Government revenue.
Studies have put illicit trade in Nigeria and globally at about two out of 10 cigarettes and one out of 10 cigarettes, respectively. The World Health Organisation, recognizing the threat posed by illicit trade in tobacco products, called for an end to it at the 2015 ‘World No Tobacco Day’ marked on May 31. Illicit trade in tobacco products is also reportedly funding criminal gangs and terrorist groups.
While responding to the threats posed by illicit trade, the Customs boss pledged the Service’s commitment to strengthening its enforcement units in order to stem the tide.
Accompanied by Grace Adeyemo, deputy comptroller general, Excise, Free Trade Zones and Industrial Incentives; Umar Abubakar, deputy comptroller general, Tarrif and Trade; and Daniel Ayegba, deputy comptroller general, Enforcement, Investigation and Inspection, the Customs CG was taken on a tour of the factory by BATN’s executives.
The BATN factory in Ibadan was commissioned in June 2003 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
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