Comptroller Dera Nandi, reported and took on duties as the captain of the Seme command of the Nigeria Customs Service.
He succeeded comptroller Bello Jibo, who has been reassigned to the Abuja headquarters as Assistant Comptroller General(ACG) acting (ACG).
In succeeding as the customs Area Controller(CAC)the Imo state-born anti-smuggling chief pledged to maintain and ameliorate the tempo of trade and facilitation at the country’s busiest land border. While, at the short handover ceremony, Nandi had described Nigeria as a” strategic economic player in Africa” Emphasizing that schemes like the ongoing ECOWAS trade liberalization scheme(ETLS)and shortly to take over the African Continental free trade area(AFCFTA)would be explored for the country’s common good. Nigeria’s economy is paramount to the west African sub-region with its population of over 200 million and the country(Nigeria)has the capacity to contribute to over one billion African people through the AFCFTA regime” He noted.
Comptroller Nandi charged his officers, other government agencies, members of the border community and travellers to embrace challenges in trans-border trade and be in compliance with the law guiding international trade at all times. He also noted that the border communities experienced challenges. Mostly, infrastructure-wise. He plainly made out that such were not overwhelming as, according to him, there was the importance to covering up such gaps in order to improve their standard of living and promote lawful sources of livelihood.
Ahead of the 2023 elections, he advised his officers to be courteous to traders and travellers conveying the Seme corridor and be firm in curbing any form of lawlessness. According to the comptroller, his experience and knowledge from previous assignments across the border and in addition to his academic background would be integrated into border administration and management.
Recall that before the new Seme comptroller went to NIPSS in 2022, he had a brief but yielding spell at the iroko command where he was “the man of the hour” of other competitive stakeholders.