The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC) to foster bilateral relationship for trade facilitation and economic growth.
Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC) Adewale Adeniyi, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, led some members of his management team to Shenzhen, where he highlighted the significance of sealing bilateral affiliation with China, which, according to him, will boost the two countries’ import-export operations and facilitate Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.
He commended the Vice Minister of the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, Wang Lingjun, for showing interest in signing an MoU with the NCS, while applauding the recent rise in the development of e-commerce, adding: “We know a lot of Nigerian companies and SMEs take advantage of the opportunities aided by e-commerce.”
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Adeniyi expressed the hope that the NCS-GACC Memorandum of Understanding will serve as a critical component of cooperative security and trade relationship between the two country’s Customs agencies, stressing: “The relationship will create a cooperative mechanism for NCS and the GACC to collaborate on supply chain security standards and enhance the economic stability of both nations.
“These are some of the many reasons why the Nigeria Customs Service pays attention to what is happening in China. As you have said, China is doing the biggest trade in Nigeria and the basic context of International Trade is ‘your export is our import.’ I appreciate the numbers you gain in Nigeria. But it is also common knowledge that those numbers sometimes must take account of the large volume of informal trade that exists between us.”
Speaking further, he said Lingjun, who represented Vice Minister Sun Yuning and signed the MoU on behalf of the People’s Republic of China, expressed satisfaction over Adeniyi’s vision that the affiliation between the two agencies will serve as a mechanism for creating opportunities that Nigeria and China share on a wide range of economic issues and trade facilitation.
