Customs Trains 12,000 Officers

Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), says the service has trained 12,000 officers to enhance its capacity towards better revenue collection.

Dikko made this known on Monday in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The comptroller-general added that the training, re-retraining and motivation given to the officers of the service in terms of better salaries, helped the NCS to collect huge revenues monthly.

“We trained almost 12,000 officers. Today they are the people who are at the field. You can see that if officers are not knowledgeable and educated, we would not have achieved this.

“He who is not knowledgeable cannot give knowledge.

“We understand that really if we have to change the way things are done, we have to really give a lot of attention to capacity building and that is what we did so far.”

Dikko said that the customs service was aiming at reaching world standards like the customs service of the U.S.A. with which it would soon sign a cooperation agreement.

The customs boss told NAN that the Italian ambassador in Nigeria had also offered to train eight Nigerian customs officers on border control, adding that the training would help to reduce smuggling.

“The ambassador came here to give us eight slots to train our officers on border control at no cost.

“So they want to help us train eight officers for border control and it is for three weeks at no expense on customs.

“I have 3,000 officers on training now as a backup. We last year trained 5,000, now plus 3000 making 8000; so even if there is retirement and death or physical disability, we have backup.

“These officers are young. Most of them are 30 years, less than 30 years; much younger and they are faster in most of our own activities.

“So I believe we don’t have problem. I am assuring the Nigerian society that we are ready for challenges. We are thinking ahead.”

Dikko said the training was part of the repositioning efforts the service was making to enable it to achieve great results.

The comptroller-general explained that all the trained officers were equipped with working tools such as laptops and accessories to make them more effective and efficient in the discharge of their duties.

Dikko pledged to give the Ministry of Transportation the necessary support in its drive towards establishing a viable railway transport system in the country to reduce the frequency of road accidents.

He said that it was also part of the responsibility of the Nigeria Customs Service to save lives and properties of Nigerians.