The Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, has explained that his election as the Chairperson of the World Customs Organisation was a humbling experience.
Adeniyi stated this while addressing journalists recently in Apapa during the handover ceremony of 25 seized containers laden with unregistered and prohibited products to officers of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.
In June, The PUNCH reported that Adeniyi was elected as the Chairperson of the World Customs Organisation, the highest decision-making body in global customs administration.
The National Public Relations Officer of the service, Abdullahi Maiwada, while announcing the election in a statement, explained that Adeniyi was elected during the 145th/146th WCO Council meeting held on Saturday at the WCO Headquarters in Brussels.
Maiwada stated that Adeniyi succeeded Edward Kieswetter, Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service, making him the first Nigerian to hold the office since the WCO’s establishment. This election is coming exactly two years after his historic appointment as the Customs CC by President Bola Tinubu.
Speaking on the election, Adeniyi stated that he was first nominated as the sole candidate of the West and Central African region.
According to him, “It has indeed been a humbling experience, stepping up in the circumstances in which it happened. And when the journey started, it started at the level of the West and Central African region, which has only 23 members. And at our regional meeting, I was unanimously proposed and eventually nominated as the sole candidate for the region.
“On the eve of that, other regions also conveyed their decision to adopt me as the sole candidate. I think four sub-regions did that before we got into Brussels for the council meetings. And the council election was to be held on the last day. During the four-day meetings, as in the days before the election itself, the European Union, the Europe sub-region, had also confirmed me. So, leaving only one region and by Saturday morning, the candidates from Asia Pacific, we also understood, have stepped down, leaving the road clear for me.”
Adeniyi highlighted that the election means that the global customs community has been noticing what was going on in Nigeria, stressing that it indicates that the country is on the right course in the journey to modernisation.
According to him, it means that they have endorsed the reforms that the NCS has been undertaking, the modernisation that we are undertaking.
“But more importantly, the operational use that we have made of the various WCO tools and instruments, tools like advanced ruling, Authorized Economic Operator, tools like the Time Release Study to measure the time and cost of doing business. So it’s a validation that we are right on course in our modernization journey,” he said.
The CGC, while appreciating the international community, added that this means that the global best practices that apply in advanced countries and advanced customs administration will remain, “a model for us that we must aspire to all the time. We must make more use of integrating automation into our processes.”
“We must allow risk management to drive our operations. We must make better use of intelligence. We must deploy non-inclusive technology instruments, scanning machines, and all of that into our operations. And as we do that, we will rely on the cooperation of all our stakeholders,” he concluded.
