News
Save us the trouble of pursuing smugglers customs boss tells FG
….. Encourage quality local production as economic strategy
By Omoh Gabriel, Business Editor
The Comptroller General of Customs Service Abdullahi Dikko has urged the federal government to lift the ban on the remaining items on the prohibition list in order to enhance revenue flow as well as save the service the agony of chasing smugglers across the vast borders of the country. He said that Customs service was not responsible for the delay in clearing goods at the port stating that every customs officer knows that the faster the process of clearing goods the better for the service. He said if it were possible customs would have adopted four hours clearance strategy at the ports.
Speaking at an interactive session with Business Editors forum at the federal operation office Lagos, Dikko declared “Government should lift the ban on these items so that we can have revenue, and we will have less burden of pursuing people because of the problems of goods we cannot produce. In fact, that was the presentation the service made on Textiles and even fairly used vehicles.
“Government listened to that and now they are un-banned. Now, China is leading the world economies, look at their population, they have the cheapest labour in the world, they produce en masse and they have to look where to sell these goods. At low cost they can penetrate any country and dominate the market.
“I remember during the pre-shipment inspection regime that we have the largest record of seizures.
For instance, if you go to Kano, gradually, Chinese have taken over. So, it is an issue that government should look at, either government should un-ban prohibited items and allow them to come in or government should encourage people who are interested in textile manufacturing to bring in sophisticated machinery so that they can produce quality materials here such that even if you go out and you compare the quality is the same as the one produced here.
“Let me ask you, is there anybody here that is drinking foreign fruit juice? Where will you even see it? We have Chivita, Five Alive, Funman, Dansa and all of them withstands the quality of foreign juice. So, if you look at it economically, we have done away with foreign juice. Let’s do the same thing for textiles, shoes, even cars. I don’t believe that import is much cheaper than production. How much is a litre of gas in Nigeria compared with a litre of gas in the UK? But they produce.
“So the issue here is that it all depends on individuals and we have to start somewhere and build patriotism in our people.
Reacting to the issue of the delay in clearing goods at the ports, the CG said “We have no reason for delaying a cargo because if you delay a cargo, the demurrage does not come to the Customs. What comes to us is revenue. So the more we facilitate trade, the more we move cargoes out of the ports, and the more cargoes come in, the more revenue we get. So there is no basis on which a Customs officer would delay a cargo because it is not going to be in the best interest of the service. \
“So if there is a way we can make it six hours clearance, we will do it in order to get more revenue. I can tell you it is not Customs officers that delay cargoes, because they know it is affecting the service’s seven per cent cost of collection. The more you collect, the more you get, and the less you clear, the less revenue you get and you do not blame anybody for the shortfall in revenue generation.
Everybody wants to ensure that enough revenue is collected. So in as much as we are together, we are partners in progress.
On the relationship with the concessionaires at the port Dikko said “The goodness of any organisation is to have a regulatory authority that can say this is wrong, this is right and to set a standard. The standard for Customs is revenue collection, and target is given to us. As for standards for the concessionaires, nobody knows how many forklifts and cranes they can bring, because nobody sits down and examines the size and the volume of traffic. So I believe that the concession was based on the amount of money they were willing to pay. I think the agreement is only on monetary terms and the structures for service delivery I think is porous because you can not concession Apapa ports with that large size and volume of traffic and somebody is having only two cranes. So the responsibility is for the regulatory authority to challenge them, it is not for us in the Customs to do that because we are not the ones regulating them”.
On the issue of Excise duty, he said “maybe you have to see the amount of revenue collection from the excise unit. This year, we are organising a special training course for our Excise officers. We are bringing in experts from outside the country because people are approaching us with the new method of collecting excise duty. But we are not going to delegate our own responsibilities to a private company. So we are telling them that ‘whatever you have, come to us and teach us and we’ll pay you.’ We will adopt the system provided it will help us to maximise revenue collection”.
A new technology transfer agreement between the Nigeria–China Strategic Partnership (NCSP) and the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT) is expected to open more job opportunities, improve local skills, and expand access to advanced technology for ordinary Nigerians.
In a press statement reaching Vanguard on Friday, the MoU aims to strengthen industrial development, support local content, and create clearer pathways for Nigerians to benefit from China’s growing investments in the country.
PICTT Chairman, Dr Dahiru Mohammed, said the partnership will immediately begin coordinated programmes that support local participation in infrastructure and industrial projects.
Special Adviser to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr John Uwajumogu, said the deal will help attract high value investments that can stimulate job creation and strengthen Nigeria’s economy.
NCSP Head of International Relations, Ms Judy Melifonwu, highlighted that Nigerians stand to gain from expanded STEM scholarships, technical training, access to modern technology, and collaboration across key sectors including steel, agriculture, automobile parks, and cultural industries.
The NCSP Director-General reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to measurable results, noting that the partnership with PICTT will prioritise initiatives that deliver direct national impact.
The MoU signals a new phase of Nigeria–China cooperation focused on practical delivery, local content, and opportunities that improve everyday livelihoods.
EU regulators launched an antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms on Thursday over its rollout of artificial intelligence features in its WhatsApp messenger that would block rivals, hardening Europe’s already tough stance on Big Tech. The move, reported earlier by Reuters and the Financial Times, is the latest action by European Union regulators against large technology firms such as Amazon and Alphabet’s Google as the bloc seeks to balance support for the sector with efforts to curb its expanding influence.
Europe’s tough stance – a marked contrast to more lenient U.S. regulation – has sparked an industry pushback, particularly by U.S. tech titans, and led to criticism from the administration of U. S. President Donald Trump. The European Commission said that the investigation will look into Meta’s new policy that would limit other AI providers’ access to WhatsApp, a potential boost for its own Meta AI system integrated into the platform earlier this year.
EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the move was to prevent dominant firms from “abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors”. She added interim measures could be imposed to block Meta’s new WhatsApp AI policy rollout. “AI markets are booming in Europe and beyond,” she said. This is why we are investigating if Meta’s new policy might be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space.”
A WhatsApp spokesperson called the claims “baseless”, adding that the emergence of chatbots on its platforms had put a “strain on our systems that they were not designed to support”, a reference to AI systems from other providers. “Still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.” The EU was the first in the world to establish a comprehensive legal framework for AI, setting out guardrails for AI systems and rules for certain high-risk applications in the AI Act.
Meta AI, a chatbot and virtual assistant, has been built into WhatsApp’s interface across European markets since March. The Commission said a new policy fully applicable from January 15, 2026, may block competing AI providers from reaching customers via the platform. Ribera said the probe came on the back of complaints from small AI developers about the WhatsApp policy. The Interaction Company of California, which has developed AI assistant Poke.com, has taken its grievance to the EU competition enforcer. Spanish AI startup Luzia has also talked to the Commission, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Marvin von Hagen, co-founder and CEO of The Interaction Company of California, said if Meta was allowed to roll out its new policy, “millions of European consumers will be deprived of the possibility of enjoying new and innovative AI assistants”. Meta also risks a fine of as much as 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules.
Italy’s antitrust watchdog opened a parallel investigation in July into allegations that Meta leveraged its market power by integrating an AI tool into WhatsApp, expanding the probe in November to examine whether Meta further abused its dominance by blocking rival AI chatbots from the messaging platform. The antitrust probe is a more traditional means of investigation than the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation currently used to scrutinize Amazon’s and Microsoft’s cloud services for potential curbs. Reuters
The spouses and children of billionaires inherited more wealth in 2025 than in any previous year since reporting began in 2015, according to UBS’s Billionaire Ambitions Report published on Thursday. In the 12 months to April, 91 people became billionaires through inheritance, collectively receiving $298 billion, up more than a third from 2024, the Swiss bank said. “These heirs are proof of a multi-year wealth transfer that’s intensifying,” UBS executive Benjamin Cavalli said.
The report is based on a survey of some of UBS’s super-rich clients and a database that tracks the wealth of billionaires across 47 markets in all world regions. At least $5.9 trillion will be inherited by billionaire children over the next 15 years, the bank calculates.
Most of this inheritance growth is set to take place in the United States, with India, France, Germany and Switzerland next on the list, UBS estimated. However, billionaires are highly mobile, especially younger ones, which could change that picture, it added. The search for a better quality of life, geopolitical concerns and tax considerations are driving decisions to relocate, according to the report.
In Switzerland, where $206 billion will be inherited over the next 15 years according to the bank, voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected 50 per cent tax on inherited fortunes of $62 million or more, after critics said it could trigger an exodus of wealthy people.
Switzerland, the UAE, the U.S. and Singapore are among billionaires’ preferred destinations, UBS’s Cavalli said. “In Switzerland, Sunday’s vote may have helped to increase the country’s appeal again,” he said. Reuters
-
News3 days agoNigeria to officially tag Kidnapping as Act of Terrorism as bill passes 2nd reading in Senate
-
News3 days agoNigeria champions African-Arab trade to boost agribusiness, industrial growth
-
News3 days agoFG’s plan to tax digital currencies may push traders to into underground financing—stakeholders
-
Finance1 week agoAfreximbank successfully closed its second Samurai Bond transactions, raising JPY 81.8bn or $527m
-
Economy3 days agoMAN cries out some operators at FTZs abusing system to detriment of local manufacturers
-
News1 week agoFG launches fresh offensive against Trans-border crimes, irregular migration, ECOWAS biometric identity Card
-
News3 days agoEU to support Nigeria’s war against insecurity
-
Uncategorized3 days agoDeveloping Countries’ Debt Outflows Hit 50-Year High During 2022-2024—WBG