Customs Boss Commends BAT's Anti-smuggling Drive
By Patrick Ugeh
The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Mr Jacob Buba, has called on Nigerian companies to emulate British American Tobacco Nigeria in its tremendous assistance to the gatekeeper of imported goods in the campaign to curb smuggling of contraband.
Assuring that the Customs were battle-ready to check smuggling and counterfeiting, Buba who was on a facility tour of the Ibadan factory of BAT, lauded the tobacco company for providing logistics, information and training to his organisation.
He particularly singled out BAT's sponsorship of a contigent of Customs officers to the first global congess on combating counterfeiting held at the World Customs Organisation headquarters in Brussels last May and another conference in Kenya, as well as its donation of three Toyota Hilux 4-wheel drive vehicles to the Customs' enforcement unit. He also expressed appreciation of the major cigarette manufacturer's social responsibility.
Buba regretted, however, that although BAT has been providing NCS with the required information on smuggling and couterfeiting activities, his organisation had sometimes been hamstrung as it was working under "poor logistic conditions".
"BAT is monitoring the movement of tobacco and is giving us information," he acknowledged. "But we have not been too successful because of the delay in communicating information to all our formations across the country."
Nevertheless, he promised to continue to make sure "we facilitate the development of British American Tobacco and other companies through anti-smuggling campaign." He pledged the Excise department's co-operation.
He stressed that much as the Federal Government was desirous to attract investors to the country, there was need for them to depend more on local raw materials rather than imports, imploring BAT to increase the local content of their tobacco now put at 40 per cent.
The managing director of BAT, Mr Richard Hogson however explained that it would be impossible to increase the local input of tobacco to the blend until research proves that it would meet the consumers' taste.
He stated that once the company was able to satisfy the Nigerian market by the end of this year, they might consider exporting their products. BAT also plans approaching other producers to help in producing theirs, he said.
Noting that about 30 per cent of the Nigerian tobacco market was "illegitimate", Hogson said his company had paid about N20 billion in tax and N4 billion dividend in the last three years.
He projected that BAT would pay taxes worth N10 billion next year, that for this year being N8.5 billion.
Describing counterfeiting as one of the greatest challenges facing the industry, he said in addition to threatening legitimate trade, "this monster compromises public health and reduces revenues accruing to government. We recognise the health risks associated with tobacco use. At the same time, we are concerned that the proliferation of tobacco products from underground sources without requisite quality control mechanisms and responsibility is an alarming development in need of serious action."
Quoting the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), he said about 55 per cent of the 11.523 billion dollars worth of Nigeriats imports last year circumvented normal import procedures, an occurrence which he said was a great challenge to the Nigeria Customs.
"We however believe that this war could be won if the efforts of enforcement agencies are complemented by private sector initiatives. BAT Nigeria will continue to play an active role in this regard," Hogson stated.
He affirmed that the company aimed to closely work with the Nigerian government to explore export avenues to other West African markets as the prospective increased trade liberalization in the sub-region was a welcome development.
"We shall exploit the opportunity," he said. "We are confident of getting the cooperation of the Nigeria Customs in this regard."
He also emphasised that BAT, as a responsible corporate citizen, was poised to assist government in the fight against the manufacturing of counterfeit products and their smuggling. In this regard, we plan to sign a Memorandum of Under-standing (MOU) with the Nigeria Customs Service to consolidate our partnership in curbing illicit trade through the provision of predictive intelligence.
"This will enable us share timely and accurate information with regulatory authorities on the activities of organized crime rings with the aim of bringing economic saboteurs to justice," he said.
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