By MARTHA AGAS

The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has urged the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to improve on risk management in its trade operations.

Okonjo-Iweala made the call in her virtual address at the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC) conference on Wednesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that risk management is the systematic process of identifying, assessing, and managing potential risks for secure and efficient flow of goods across borders.

Effective risk management improves security, enhances compliance with regulations, speeds up trade processing, and allows customs agencies to allocate resources more effectively by focusing on high-risk areas, reducing delays, and facilitating legitimate trade.

The WTO boss said that in many developed economies, the share of consignments selected for physical inspection was lower than one per cent.

“But in Nigeria, it is around 90 per cent with an additional nine per cent of consignments scanned.

“Without improving risk management and reducing inspection rates accordingly, speeding up clearance in a meaningful manner will be impossible.

“Better risk management will have to go hand in hand with better compliance, feedback from inspections, and less discretion in the part of the officials,” she said.

She said that the move was to ensure that customs rules and regulations were predictable and consistently applied, with effective sanctions.

According to the DG, better risk management and information sharing are critical in addressing delays.

“Personnel of the NCS should be encouraged to discharge their duties diligently.

“The predictability of tariffs and other measures remain limited, as fiscal policies measure often adjust tariffs, and it remains subject to a multitude of factors,” she said.

She said that ambitious goals to strengthen trade were necessary, adding that it also requires ambitious reforms and building coalition of support, which is the aim of the conference.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference, which began on Tuesday, is scheduled to end on Friday. (NAN)