By MARTHA AGAS

Nigeria on Tuesday handed over the Vice-Chairmanship seat of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), West Africa and Central Region, to Mali.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the ceremony held at the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Headquarters, Abuja, saw Nigeria’s NCS boss, Mr Adewale Adeniyi, handing over to his Malian counterpart, Amadou Konate.

Adeniyi, in a remark, thanked his counterparts in the region for their cooperation during his tenure that kicked off May 2022.

He said that the WCO was an umbrella body that brings together more than 184 customs administrations, adding that the West and Central Africa region had 24 administrations that work in unison to attain mandates.

“We also have the obligation to implement measures that improve the environment of trade through freight facilitation.

“From the experience all over the world, we are living in a world 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.

He said that the WCO in the region hold regular meetings and activities where they 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 partake in capacity building among ourselves to train our officers and give them the best opportunity and environment to learn.

“We are not all at the same level of development, so we should also find opportunities to provide mentorship to each other in different aspect of customs operations,” he said.

He urged the new man to take measures that would bring the regions’ customs administrations together, saying that they could draw strength from one another to address their challenges.

“The hand over document has identified some immediate challenges that the Vice Chair would confront in the months ahead.

“The most important one is that we need to mobilise funds and resources to fund our activities in the survey job.

“We are in the middle of organising another conference, so I want to charge the Vice Chair to make this a priority programme,” he said.

He said that the office required the support of the host government and hoped that the Malian government would understand that and provide the necessary support to ensure the success of the country’s tenure.

On his part, Konate assured the outgoing VC that he would consolidate on his achievements to shore up customs administration in the region. (NAN)

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