By OLADAPO UDOM

The Nigerian Customs Service and the Republic of Benin Customs have initiated the Customs Declaration Exchange System (CDES) to facilitate cross-border trade between the two countries.

The Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC) Mr Adewale Adeniyi, said that the objective of the technology enabled system was for interconnectivity of their operations, coordinated enforcement, harmonise proceduresb and accountable joint governance.

Adeniyi said this at the Joint Nigeria-Benin Customs meeting on the One Stop Border Post Assessment, which held at Seme-Krake border, Lagos State on Friday.

The meeting has as its theme: “Leveraging the Nigeria Customs Service Trade Modernisation Project to Advance Seamless Cross Border Trade and Shared Responsibility”.

The CGC said that once this was achieved, their two services would have built the template for every online crossing within the Economic Community of West African States and the African continent.

“This system will help to ease movement across the two borders for traders, especially women, who make up more than 70 per cent of those who engage in informal cross border trade.

“On this corridor, the pattern is even more pronounced because some 22 per cent of Benin’s informal exports are destined for Nigeria.

“Informal trade is estimated to account for a fifth of economic activity in Nigeria and even a far higher share of that exists in Benin Republic,” the CGC said.

Adeniyi said that women traders across the West African border typically support more than three children and a similar number of other dependents from trade alone.

“Women on this corridor are alleged to have faced harassment, extortion, and delay as ordinary features of the border crossing where a border is slow, opaque, intimidating and complex.

“However, it gives me particular satisfaction that the Nigerian Customs Service alongside Benin is launching a dedicated facility to cater for the special needs of women traders on this corridor,” he said.

The CGC said that the CDES’s purpose was to bring women into the formal trading system on terms that they could actually meet and simplify procedures for small consignments movement.

“The system will also help to clearly publish information in the languages traders will understand and provide a channel through which any woman who is badly treated can make a complaint,” he said.

Adeniyi said that the true test of the system would be measured by whether a truck carrying goods from Cotonou to Lagos clears the border once, instead of clearing it twice.

“It will be measured by whether a man or woman with a load of goods crosses the border in an hour, rather than using the whole day to cross it.

“It will also be measured by whether an officer on this side, sees what an officer on the other side is looking at, and it will help facilitate decision-making,” he said.

Adeniyi said that the technical team had presented a series of processes which would help put the CDES in Benin and Nigeria for interconnectivity and trade facilitation.

“So, we are looking at the possibility of co-locating the customs administrations and systems in one place inside the border.

“Once this is done, within the next three months, all of the system would have started working. However, the most important ingredient that we need is connectivity between the systems.

“Once we achieve connectivity, and then the willingness of the two customs administrations, in a matter of months, we will start the system running,” the CGC said.

The Director General, Customs, Benin Republic, Col. Raouf Aboudou, assured of readiness on the part of Benin Republic to ensure that the CDES works without hitches and improve trade between the countries.

“Readiness is not a policy. Readiness is not a part of any development. Readiness is joint. So, we are expressing readiness for this joint venture to be a success.

“I am very optimistic that this system will work because it was built by us and for us,” Aboudou said. (NAN)

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