The Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali, on Tuesday, said the promoters of the Nigeria Customs E-Modernisation project have committed $300 million; about N139 billion since the commencement of the project.
The Nigeria Customs Service and a consortium, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, had in May 2022 signed a concession agreement worth $3.2bn to digitise operations of the border security and revenue collection outfit, with expected $176bn in revenue.
Recall that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had in April 2023 approved the E-Customs Modernisation project in disregard of a subsisting Abuja federal high court order in a suit brought against the federal government and its agents by aggrieved companies.
But Col. Ali who spoke for the first time in Lagos, since the project was approved, said he was surprised that there was so much controversy on the approval of the project.
The CGC was at the Customs Training College, Ikeja, along with some top management team members to mentor trainee cadets on what to expect when deployed to the field.
“We embarked on the process to ensure it comes to reality and today, it’s a reality. It’s on the ground and will start functioning very soon.
“There are so many stories about court cases, about wasting $3.62bn. It is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) project. These guys will earn their money from what we collect and not that government will take anything out of its pocket; it will come from customs collection,” he said.
