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House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Customs and Public Petitions has cautioned the Federal Government to be wary of fresh moves to repackage and represent an earlier proposal to modernise the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
A member of the panel who craved anonymity said at the weekend in Lagos that some powerful interest groups in and outside government were bent on representing the $300 million projects, which was earlier investigated by the National Assembly and subsequently suspended by the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
It would be recalled that Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions, Jerry Alagbaoso had in October 2019, moved a motion to investigate the proposed deal on concession arrangement to modernise the NCS, leading to its suspension in November last year.
But indications have emerged that the promoters of the scheme are now bent on representing it to the Federal Government with a view to convincing both the executive and legislative arms of government on the need to make the project fly.
Moving the motion on the floor of the House, Alagbaoso had cautioned that the deal would do the country no good, insisting that its promoters were only interested in what they stand to gain in the project, which they see as a ‘juicy’ scheme.
“There are some foreign companies who are very eager to sponsor, finance and provide technical support and services to what they call modernisation of the customs without recourse to the National Assembly.
“My motion is to stress the need to investigate the curious concession proposed arrangement between the consortium of Bionica Technologies West Africa Limited, who are the sponsors; Began Security Consultants and Supplies, who are co-sponsors and the African Finance Corporation (AFC) as lead financiers and Huawei, Nigeria Customs Service and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) for the project.”
After presenting the motion, Alagbaoso (Chairman, Public Petitions), Hon. James Abiodun Faleke (Chairman, Finance) and Hon Yuguda Hassan Kila (Chairman, Customs) in a memo to the Minister of Finance dated October 30, 2019, stressed the need for all parties involved in the project to maintain the status quo ante pending the outcome of investigations, which led to the suspension of the deal.
Specifically, Alagbaoso cited various customs modernization projects in the past including the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for the installation of ASYCUDA++ and training of customs officers for three years.
He also mentioned that other such projects were suggested to the NCS, ICRC, Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning and Ministry of Justice in 2011, 2017 and the one of 2019, in which the promoters sought a pro-rata sharing of one percent Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) and a $300 million investment.
He expressed concern that billions of Naira will be frittered away from the account of one per cent CISS with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regarding the cost of modernization scheme by the different parties involved.
Alagbaoso further expressed worries that there was no difference in substance, scope and structure between the failed concession attempts of 2011, 2017 and 2019, stressing that there was already a national single window platform in the NCS through which officers of the service were collecting duties in billions of Naira on daily basis.
He insisted that the Federal Government was being misled on the one per cent CISS, which has accumulated in billions of Naira at the CBN.
Stakeholders, therefore, cautioned that considering the huge amount involved in the proposed project, the government must resist every attempt to represent it before the end of the first quarter of this year, insisting that if allowed to materialize, the country stands to lose in the short and long run.