Nigeria on Tuesday handed over the Vice-Chairmanship seat of the World Customs Organisation for the West Africa and Central Region to Mali.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the ceremony, held at the Nigeria Customs Service Headquarters in Abuja, saw Nigeria’s NCS boss, Mr Adewale Adeniyi, handing over to his Malian counterpart, Amadou Konate.
In his remarks, Adeniyi thanked his counterparts in the region for their cooperation during his tenure, which commenced in May 2022.
He stated that the WCO is an umbrella body that brings together more than 184 customs administrations, noting that the West and Central Africa region comprises 24 administrations working in unison to achieve their mandates.
We also have the obligation to implement measures that improve the trade environment through freight facilitation.
“From experiences worldwide, we are living in an era of economic integrations, with customs administrations charged with administering and implementing these integration measures.
“All our customs administrations are challenged by issues of fragile borders and insecurity,” he noted.
Adeniyi added that the WCO in the region holds regular meetings and activities where members share experiences, exchange ideas, discuss their challenges, and propose solutions.
He further explained that they examine best practices available in different customs administrations and make efforts to learn from them.
We also engage in capacity building among ourselves to train our officers and provide them with the best opportunities and environments to learn.
“We are not all at the same level of development, so we should also seek opportunities to provide mentorship to each other in different aspects of customs operations,” he said.
He urged the new Vice-Chair to take measures that would bring the region’s customs administrations together, emphasising that they could draw strength from one another to address their challenges.
“The handover document has identified some immediate challenges that the Vice-Chair will confront in the months ahead.
“The most important of these is the need to mobilise funds and resources to support our activities in the region.
We are in the process of organising another conference, so I want to urge the Vice-Chair to prioritise this programme,” he said.
Adeniyi also stressed that the office requires the support of the host government and expressed hope that the Malian government would provide the necessary backing to ensure the success of the country’s tenure.
In his response, Konate assured the outgoing Vice-Chair that he would build on his achievements to enhance customs administration in the region.
