The House of Representatives, has summoned the Central Bank (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed over the dispute that has continue to delay take off of the Nigeria e-Customs project.
Also to appear alongside the duo before the House’s joint Committee on Customs and Excise, Finance, and, Banking and Currency for the matter to be resolved are; Comptroller General of the Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), Chairman, CBN’s Technical Committee on Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) and Managing Director of Adani Mega Systems Ltd. The committee is expected to report back within Four weeks.
Chairman of the Committee on Customs, Leke Abejide during Thursday’s plenary drew attention of the House to the need to resolve a debacle between the CBN Technical Committee on CISS, and the firm to which the project was contracted, thereby delaying the take off.
“The CBN Technical Committee on Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) had agreement with Adani Mega Systems Ltd to engage the latter as Service Provider/Vendor for screening service infrastructure for the inspection of all inbound and outbound cargo in Nigeria”, he said.
According to the lawmaker, a Build, Operate, and Own Agreement between the Technical Committee on CISS (on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria) and Adani Mega Systems Ltd in relation to the provision of the scanning services infrastructures (scanners) required for all operations was sealed and a certificate of “NO OBJECTION” was issued by the BPP after evaluating the profile of the company.
He lamented however that “the level of engagement had reached the turning point whereby Adani Mega Systems Ltd had procured necessary equipments to commence the E-Customs projects as provided for in the contract, but since 13th July, 2017, the project had stalled without solution in sight, further causing tremendous revenue loss to the Federal Government”.
He noted that according to the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the project had the potential of yielding Up to $176 billion over the course of the 20 year concession period.
