By Okey Ibeke

In September 2019, a letter from the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, addressed to the Minister of Finance, and copied to the Director-General, Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) and the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service revealed a plan by the federal government to concession the revenue-collection function of the Nigeria Customs Service to a consortium of four private firms, under what it termed ‘Customs Modernization Project’.

As expected, the move elicited the right amount of uproar in the system and the entire country, leading to its investigation by the national assembly and final suspension by the Ministry of Finance. However, what is not known is whether the powerful pushers of the scheme in government will throw in the towel at this juncture or whether they will fight on to actualize their selfish dreams.

In the life of almost every administration in this country, a time comes when a grand scheme pops up to shove the Nigeria Customs Service aside, and take over its revenue-collecting function. In the past such names as PIDA (Professional Import Duty Administrators), Crown Agents, Destination Inspection Providers, Single Window Systems & Technologies Ltd, Adani Systems Nigeria Ltd had been heard. Some succeeded in their schemes and really had their way while others had theirs nipped in the bud.

Now the name that is making the rounds is Bionica Technologies West Africa Limited and its consortium of fortune hunters such as Bergan Security Consultants and Supplies, Huawei – a Chinese information technology company and the African Finance Corporation, which is the so called lead financier of the concession project.

The consortium and their partners in government must have been so powerful that to ensure the take-off of the initiative, a directive from the Presidency was issued to the ministers of Justice and of Finance, Budget and Planning, mandating them to finalize the concession agreement between Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and a Special Purpose Vehicle company for the deal.

Read More : https://businessandmaritimewestafrica.com/customs-modernization-project-another-grand-scheme-to-corner-multi-billion-dollar-ciss-fees/