In a bid to further enhance the reportorial skills of the men and women of the pen profession, the Tincan Island Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Tuesday commenced the training of maritime journalists at the command’s training centre in Lagos.
The two-day training which was kick started with the training of the first batch of twenty-eight (28) journalists seeks to train about seventy (70) maritime journalists spread in three (3) batches of two days each.
The training which featured lectures like the Interpersonal Skills, Will, Overview of the Tincan Island Customs command/Revenue profile, Communication, Trade facilitation among others saw eminent customs scholars as well as a legal practitioner who also doubles as the legal adviser for the command handle such topics.
Speaking during one of the lectures, an Assistant Comptroller of Customs (AC) Gyang Dudu Dalyop hinted that a total of four hundred and seventeen (417) persons comprising of three hundred and eighty-four (384) officers and thirty-three (33) stakeholders had been trained by the command at the centre since the establishment of the centre in August 2016.
Dalyop recounted the areas covered by the training for the said number of persons included but not limited to the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS)/ ASYCUDA, Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) Common External Tariffs (CET) , Change Management, Interpersonal Skills, Integrity, Compliance, Valuation, Classification, and will.
He further updated the journalists on the number of seizures made by the command in recent years one of which was the 440 Pump Action Riffles seized by the Command on Tuesday and the three commendation letters written to the command for such remarkable seizures by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd.).
The AC also acquainted the purveyors with the export prohibition lists which he said included maize, unprocessed rubber, latex , raw hide and skins, wet blue and unprocessed leather. Other were; raw timber, scrap metal, artifacts and antiquities, wild animals especially those classified as endangered species and their products among others.
On his part, the Command’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr. Uche Ejesieme appealed to the journalists to always put national security ahead of every other consideration in the discharge of their duty as they could make or mar the security of the nation by their reportage.
In his goodwill message at the training, the Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the command, Comptroller Yusuf Bashar appreciated the journalists for taking advantage provided by the training to enhance their knowledge not only in customs operations but in areas not known to them before now such as Will which he said had left many families in disarray at the demise of their breadwinners.
Bashar hinted that the areas for the training such as Interpersonal skill, communication, change management were carefully selected having in mind the demands of their profession as journalists with the intent to better enhance their relationship and professional skills.
While showing his disapproval for the proliferation of medium, the CAC appealed to the journalists to consider coming together to float one medium so as to give them competitive edge, reduce cost and enhance their productivity level in the industry even as he thanked them for partnering the command in its resolve to do things right.
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