LAW ENFORCEMENT 20/08/2023
Customs to Relocate Operations Unit From Lagos
The Federal Government through the acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, has said the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A will be relocated to Ogun State in the first half of 2026.
Adeniyi who disclosed this while addressing journalists at Zone A Ikeja, admitted that the command is currently filled beyond its capacity.
He added that the new location would also accommodate the training college and the warehouse.
Adeniyi said that the groundbreaking ceremony of the project would be held in a few days’ time.
He said, “We already have a plan to relocate the entire operations of the FOU A, we are going to a new location somewhere outside Lagos. We have acquired the place, any moment from now we are going to do the groundbreaking so that the project can start. It is going to be a-one stop stuff; it is not just going to be only the FOU A that is going to be there, our training college will also be there. We are going to have a number of Customs facilities there. We already see that there is no more space here and when we leave we are going to make good use of this place in such a way that we will no longer be creating nuisance which all these lorries and trucks would be creating to the environment.”
Adeniyi said contractors had moved to the site.
He said, “I can say that the project has started and we are making every effort to ensure that the current issues with the exchange rate would not create problems for us. The contract has been awarded and the contractors have moved to site, they have taken the first move to establish their presence and I want to believe that in the next few days, we are going to officially hand over this sight to the contractors. We are anticipating that within 30 months or there we should be able to move the entire operations out of here to the new sight.”
The Customs boss however said that the NCS would be engaging with the Customs Administration of Benin Republic for a synergy on how to ensure ease of doing business.
“In two weeks, the Customs administration will be coming to Abuja for us to continue where we started in Benin Republic and get a wide range of agreement on what our next strategy would be,” he concluded.