A United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) consultant, John Isemede, has said the influx of fake and substandard goods into the country is not due to the nation’s porous borders but poor regulatory framework by the Nigeria Customs.
He said the Customs should be held accountable for the substandard goods found in every nook and cranny of the country, as it is the agency saddled with the responsibility of checking imports.
Isemede stated this at a roundtable on “Business Environment & Excise Duty: Maximising economic opportunities through effective anti-illicit trade enforcement”, organised in Lagos by the Initiative For Public Policy Analysis (IPPA) during the week.
He accused Customs officers of compromising the national assignment for self aggrandisement, stressing that they only confiscate and impound the goods of those who fail to pay their way through.
The UNIDO consultant said that Seme Border was the busiest in Africa, adding that the volume of illicit trade going on there was alarming.
He said the country was overloaded with imports, adding that policy enforcement on illicit trade should be intensified.
Isemede advised that the government should review the membership of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) such that the Organised Private Sector (OPS) will take centre stage in contrast with the current arrangement with paucity of infrastructure.
He added that the government could also consider the coming back of the Commodity Board to optimise the nation’s comparative advantage.
In his presentation, a senior researcher and fellow at IPPA and University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom (UK), Olajide Damilola, noted that Nigeria was yet to be captured by the Global Illicit Trade Index (GITEI), the body rating countries on illegal trade, due to unavailability of data.
He outlined some of the critical factors considered to be contributing to illicit trade as government policy, supply and demand of illicit products, lack of transparency and trade environment and Customs enforcement.
Isemede pointed out that illicit trade was a global phenomenon whose solution should be global in nature, with international cooperation and harmonisation of laws and regulations beyond borders. He cited the global fight against money laundering as an example.
He recommended that a holistic approachwas required which would involve strategies beyond the jurisdiction of a country, stating that there can be no single policy framework to address the problem but a case-to-case approach targeting products.