Customs Area Comptroller Visits LADOL

The Nigeria Customs Service has described indigenous investment in the offshore sector of the oil and gas industry as the needed tonic for government’s drive towards economic recovery.

This observation was made by the Customs Area Controller of Apapa Port Command, Idris Suleiman, when he paid a working visit to the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics base, (LADOL) in Lagos yesterday.

According to the Customs boss who was received at the base by the Executive Chairman of LADOL, Mr. Ladi Jadesimi, the facility was established as a stop-gap in the creation of employment for Nigerians even as he noted that government would also benefit from it in the area of foreign exchange conservation.

“LADOL is a very interesting and curious facility. It is interesting because it would do a lot to assist government in terms of economic development of the country. One of the policies of government is backward integration. That is, to ensure that indigenous Nigerians go into manufacturing instead of merely trading,” he said.

According to him, the need to achieve this objective informed government’s efforts to provide the enabling laws that would support the initiative through the proposed law of the Nigerian Exports Processing Zones Authority, otherwise called NEPZA Act, now before the National Assembly.

“This is a conscious effort in that direction and, therefore, you find that there is a re-invigoration of the enabling law, which are the NEPZA Act and the Oil and Gas Law. I was curious to know from the NEPZA man about the development because that is what will make the future of enterprises such as LADOL very bright,” he added.

He pointed out that the establishment needed to grow for its full potential to be realised, adding that such supports and encouragement could mainly come from government as well as the multinational oil companies.