Regulatory authorities for Nigeria’s free trade zone are set to improve their operation processes and other procedures to tighten all loose ends in the administration and management of the country’s Free Trade Zones and improve their service delivery for a greater impact on the economy.
The regulatory bodies which are the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) and the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone Authority (OGFZA), as well as Nigeria Economic Zones Association (NEZA) and the Nigeria Customs Service made this decision during a visit to Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, Acting Comptroller-General of Customs in Abuja.
Adesoji Adesugba MD/CEO NEPZA, explained that it was incumbent on the Nigeria Customs Service to help the regulatory bodies drive the success of the free trade ecosystem by allowing seamless trade facilitation across the landscape.
Hence he described Adeniyi’s appointment as a boost for the industry, as the growth of the scheme was largely stunted due to years of an uncooperative posture of the customs’ top leadership.
“We are all now in agreement that only a collaborative partnership among the key stakeholders can reposition the scheme to begin to have a significant impact in the economy and for global competitiveness,” Adesugba said.
Adesugba added that a Joint Committee comprising members from NEPZA, OGFZA, NEZA and NCS was urgently required to address all the teething challenges affecting the smooth operation of the scheme.
Tijjani Kaura, MD, OGFZA explained that the regulatory bodies and all the free trade zones’ stakeholders were willing to establish a more cohesive and collaborative partnership with customs, adding that such a partnership had already been established between the two regulatory bodies and with all the free trade zones’ investors through NEZA.
The OGFZA boss further stated that the Joint Committee would be in the right position to deal with all the key issues that would be listed as the Terms of Reference (ToR).
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“We want the customs leadership to understand that the Free Trade Zone is a unique economic landscape guided by both the Act of Parliament and Global Rules and Regulations, any country that seeks to adopt it must also be prepared to accept these rules,” Kaura said.
Toyin Elegbede, Executive Secretary, NEZA, said that the Free Trade Zones’ Investors were confronted with a mirage of challenges that included intermittent disagreeable execution of duties by some customs officers, adding that the incentives that were the main attraction to zones must continually be allowed.
In response, the acting Comptroller-General said the Free Trade Zones scheme could be used to realistically drive the nation’s economy.
Adeniyi said that the suggestion for the setting up of a Joint Committee to remodel the processes and procedures to manage the various administrative engagements among key stakeholders was a novelty, adding that all hands must be on deck to salvage the country’s ailing economy through the scheme.
“We should also study and re-evaluate our various Acts to see those areas of conflicts and overlapping functions and to assiduously work toward amending them,” he said.
