Shortly after the mantle of Onne Area II Customs Command was handed over to him by his predecessor, Comptr. B Imam, who broke an impressive record of generating over N2 billion revenue in a day at the Command.
Comptr. M Babandede, the new Customs Area Comptroller (CAC) of Onne Command in his wisdom, hit the ground running by embarking on familiarization visits to individual bonded terminals that are being operated by maritime stakeholders, particularly the freight forwarders.
In the course of his visits, Comptroller M Babandede visited Godify Group of Companies Limited (Operators of Slot Bonded Terminal), Odest Global Resources Limited (Operators of Odest Bounded Terminals), and Prestige Associates Limited (Operators of Prestige Bonded Terminal).
Other terminals include: Kingsoo Group Limited (Operators of Kingsoo Bonded Terminal), Don Climax Bonded Terminal, QNB Bonded Terminal and Belburge Bonded Terminal, among others.
The visits according to Comptroller M Babandede were meant to familiarize with the operators of the bonded terminals, the facilities in place and to listen to their achievements and challenges, as well as to see how such challenges could be resolved.
On the part of terminal operators, the issues of multiple alerts on a single cargo by Customs and incessant network failures were raised and attributed to reasons why clients refused patronizing, due to huge payments on demurrage, based on the afformentioned challenges, during the visits.
However, Comptr. M Babandede must be commended for using the opportunity of the visits to listen to the Officers in Charge of the various terminals on issues hampering the effective discharge of duties at their respective terminals, and his assurances to support them ensure Ease of Doing Business at their respective terminals.
The Comptroller General (CG) of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, who according to Comptroller M Babandede, had internally taken care of the issue of multiple alerts raised in the course of his visits, must be lauded, as well as on his other initiatives that have helped to move Nigeria Customs Service on a pedestal of stability, transparency and effective service delivery.
Comptroller M Babandede should have it at the back of his mind that constant engagements with critical and relevant stakeholders in the maritime industry and his recent familiarization visits to individual bonded terminals, among others, are the way to go, if he must consolidate or possibly surpass the revenue record of his predecessor and target of the Command.
