Customs stops exit of rice from free trade zones

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has ordered immediate stoppage of rice from Free Trade Zones (FTZs) in the country in order to enforce total compliance to the ban on the importation of rice.

This was disclosed in Abuja by the Public Relations Officer of NCS, Mr. Joseph Attah.

According to Attah, it became necessary to extend the war against rice smuggling to the FTZs because of the high cases of smuggled rice being taken to FTZs due to high security in land borders.

He said: “Just last week, the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), issued a directive that no rice should exit from FTZ into the country. We know that the FTZ enjoys special status under the law.

“It is known as a country within a country,” he said, adding that, that is why some items that are not allowed in the country are allowed by law to be imported into the country by the operators in the FTZ.

“However, the NCS has discovered that some operators are taking advantage of the status of the FTZ. They now circumvent the law restricting rice importation through the land borders,” he said.

Attah opined that “if we block the land borders and allow operators of FTZ to bring in rice through the seaport into the FTZ and then exit into Nigeria, our efforts at the land borders will be in vain.”

According to him, being land of its own, the law that apply to the land border should also apply to the FTZ because it is a land, and between the two borders, there is no seaport.

He however did not point out if all FTZs are culprits or not and whether warnings were issued before the latest blanket ban.