Under its current leadership, the Seme Border Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is deploying various innovative measures to track and arrest all forms of illicit businesses across the international border, while maximizing national security and revenue collection
By Innocent Chukwu
Watchers of Customs events said the Comptroller Abdullahi Shuaibu Taila’s Midas touch on leadership is evidently reinventing legitimate business undertakings at one of the country’s ever busy border posts. Comptroller Kaila is the current Customs Area Controller (CAC) in charge of the Seme Border Area Command located in the Badagry area of Lagos State.
The CAC, since assuming office this year, has consistently shown leadership capabilities that have resulted in the visible achievement of the core mandates of the the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), to the administration of the critical stakeholders of the Command. Why all eyes have been fixed on watching what Comptroller Kaila is doing to restore sanity and the reputation of the Command is because he was posted to the area when one of his predecessors had been enmeshed in alleged security breaches that attracted the attention of the authorities and consequent investigation.
Under this dismal atmosphere, many had keenly watched to see how Kaila would be able to rejuvenate the Command and restore the confidence of the trading community who ply their trades across the embattled border post. In the quest for excellence, Kailla maintained bold steps and rendered the doubting Thomases speechless. Administrative competency, seizures of illicit and smuggled items and revenue upsurge flowed freely.
The latest of Comptroller Kaila’s pragmatic leadership is the full deployment of the “Simplified Declaration System for Passenger Baggage Import” at the border. The System is an innovation of the NCS which reinforces commitment to digital innovation, trade facilitation and improved passenger clearance processes.
Speaking on the importance of the digitalized system for import and passenger clearance, Taila noted that it would help to simplify baggage declaration and assessment, reduce clearance time, enhance transparent business transactions, as well as facilitate the smooth movement of legitimate travelers and cross-border traders through the Seme Border corridor.
Accordingly, the Simplified system can help passengers initiate baggage declarations using mobile devices, or complete the process at a designated digital kiosk at the border. The Command said the innovation, since its commencement at the border location, has generated over N10 million in revenue from passenger baggage declarations alone, noting that it is part of the Command’s efforts at modernizing Customs operations at the border for effective service delivery.
Comptroller Kaila’s focus has remained on the deployment of technology and intelligence-driven operations for detecting national security threats, protect public health and maximize revenue generation through effective trade facilitation. At the last count, the Command, recently, intercepted smuggled explosives and drugs, including 3,300 cartridges of explosive materials and 373 parcels of cannabis sativa which were handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
