The Comptroller General (CG) Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Alhaji Hamman Bello Ahmed has said that the Service has concluded plans to review the processes of issuing licenses to its Customs License Agents.

The NCS boss disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja to mark his first 100 days in office as Comptroller General of the NCS. He said that henceforth, before a license is issued, the agent must comply with the conditions for the issuance of such license.

"Henceforth any renewal of license or issuance of a new license must meet the conditions of the NCS," the CG said.

According to the CG, one of such conditions is that Customs Licensed Agents must have a suitable accommodation with qualified staffs who must be able to interpret the tariff .

Secondly, the agent would be required to have operational vehicles; thirdly, they must provide maps of where their offices are located; fourthly, the charges they give to the Importers and fifthly, they must have relevant instruction books- such as the tariff explanatory notes for the discharge of their Customs and Excise duties.

"By experience an agent would commit an offence and you find that the address of his office is a Church or an open football field, so we are going to enforce the compliance of these conditions for the issuance of license or the renewal of an old one,' Hamman Ahmed Bello said.

Daily Trust gathered that it may cost up to N1 million for a new license. On the service providers, the CG said that the major challenge of the NCS is the mandate to attain 48-hour clearance of goods.

This, according to the CG is a big task requiring all stakeholders to get their act together for the 'noble objective.'

"On our own part, we have taken concrete steps to take us closer to the 48-hours target. We have commissioned Direct Traders Input (DTI) Cafes that will enable Importers log on their declarations: we have collapsed our CPC procedures, we are test-running a pilot scheme of electronic payment system, for payment, confirmation and reconciliation of Customs revenue.'