German firm trains 80 Customs officers on CET

80 officers of the Apapa and Tin Can Island Area commands of the Nigeria Customs Service have been trained by a German firm, Gesellschaft fur International Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) on the Common External Tariff (CET) to improve their knowledge on classification.

The training session which took place recently at the two commands also include officers of PTML, KLT commands and the Post Clearance Audit (PCA) among others.

Speaking with newsmen in Lagos, the Public Relations Officer of the Apapa Customs command, Emmanuel Ekpa said the Comptroller General of Customs gave approval for the training to enable officers’ update their knowledge on the CET.

He said a good knowledge of the workings of CET will enable officers classify items correctly and collect more revenue for the government.

“The need for training and retraining cannot be over emphasized. Officers need to be updated on day to day activities. CET is not new. It is a like what I can refer to customs bible because without tariff itself, you cannot know classification. That is why the Comptroller General of Customs deems it necessary to sent the facilitators so as to update the officers’ knowledge on the CET.

“Their full knowledge on CET will enable them to classify items correctly. For example, when we had the dispute resolution seat, it was because of wrong classification and officers that are not well trained will not be able to give right classification. That is why we need training and retraining of officers.

“For example, if a particular item is suppose to pay 20 percent and maybe it was classified under five percent, officers that are not trained will just accept it like that and revenue will be lost. So when they are versatile with the correct tariff classification, they will be able to collect more revenue for government,” he said.