DESTINATION INSPECTION: SGS PREPARES TO HANDOVER TO CUSTOMS

By IFEYINWA OBI
Destination Inspection (DI) service provider, SGS Scanning Nigeria Limited, has commenced the training of a select team of 80 officers  at the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Training College Ikeja,  Lagos, as part of the winding down activities of the company under the Destination Inspection regime by December 2012.

Members of the Transition Team were selected from the best among those already trained by the service provider since 2006 under the NCS Secondment Programme.

The guest of honour at the opening ceremony,  Comptroller General of Customs Abdullahi Dikko Inde, who was represented by Deputy Comptroller Alali G.C., expressed satisfaction with the quality of technical support provided by SGS to the Service. He urged the trainees to take the training programme seriously so as not to disappoint the Service as well as the Comptroller General who has placed a lot of confidence in them.

In his words, 'the Comptroller General who we refer to as Mr Transformation, is very much interested in this training programme, it is in line with his six point agenda of which capacity building is high on the list. So I urge you to take this training seriously, NCS is a large organisation and you should count yourselves lucky to have been selected for this training.

The success of Nigeria Customs Service depends on its human resources, you can have all the money or the equipment and achieve very little. So I urge you all not to disappoint the Service, don't disappoint our indefatigable Comptroller General and also don't disappoint yourselves.'

Earlier in his welcome remarks, Managing Director of SGS Scanning Nigeria Limited, Mr Nigel Balchin, assured the Comptroller General that all the officers would receive adequate training on all aspect of the destination inspection activities being handled by the company for the Nigeria Customs Service. 'We have an obligation to the NCS, to ensure that by the end of this training exercise, you all have attained the right standard and also fully prepared to take over from us, he said.

'The training you have had before was the first installment, this time it will be more in-depth. There will be classroom refresher courses, but otherwise it will be very much a hands-on training,' he explained.