The Nigeria Customs Service led by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR is optimistic that the launching of the Green Channel by the Management of Lagos Free Zone, LFZ will automatically reduce the cost of doing business, the time of doing business as well as brings about increase in revenue generation.
He spoke recently to few journalists at the official launching of Green Channel by the Management of LFZ, Lekki, Lagos.
News Emperor was there.
Happy reading.
Q: What exactly are we expecting from the launching of the Green Channel here today?
Ans: The question speaks to the issue of trade facilitation and the fact that it reduces the time and the cost we are using in the clearance of cargo in our ports. And it also reduces the cost of doing businesses in our ports.
What you are seeing today, speaks exactly to that. That containers that are ladding in the vessels are brought down immediately and are taken through the green channel, where examination would be done.
Q: What is all about?
Ans: This is not what we used to have. It used to be some exhuburance before you get into examination bay. See, what happened today because it is the trust that our investors are having in us and the confidence that we also have in them. They will do it in the spirit of compliance and in the spirit of trade facilotation. And we are very optimistic that
automatically, once we do that, there will be increase in revenue generation.
Q: What will be the impact of this Green Channel to Customs operations?
Ans: Basically, if we are looking at the bug picture, at the first place, we are looking at creating an economy that will be competitive. And reducing the cost of doing business and the time of doing business, which translates to higher revenue.
Q: Please can you expatiate more on this Green Channel of a thing?
Ans: Well, if you go to a bigger port and you know, we always have an issues of a staking areas on a bigger ports, and after some days you want to do examination and you can’t do it because you don’t even know where the containers are packed. You can do that for three four days without knowing where the containers are staked.
But this particular intervention helps them to move the containers from the vessels into a dedicated place where the containers can be examined.
And between the time a container is moved from the vessels and the time it is moved to this place (the green channel), it can be tracked. You can see it online, you can monitor it and things like that. So, it becomes very very convinced that this is an idea that must be given time to work. So, while not give it time?
Q: Sir, why it is called Green Channel?
Ans: It is because it is green. The colour is green,you saw it. I am talking seriously. It is because it is coming from the vessel. And we have removed every encumbrances. There hasn’t been any customs intervention.
And it is coming through a dedicated corridor . If there has been some intervention along the place and r maybe customs stops it in a place or there are some interventions by other government agencies, then the movement is no longer smooth. It is no longer green.
Q: How many containers do you project that can be takem in a day?
Ans: It depends on the containers that are brought by the vessels. We are not in the position to determine how many countries.
All depending on the containers that are presented for customs to assess.