Addressing the issue of fuel smuggling despite the removal of the petrol subsidy, Wale Adeniyi, acting comptroller-general of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), has acknowledged that complete eradication may take time.
He said some border areas have reported seizures of fuel, adding that the rate of smuggling has considerably reduced.
He expressed hope that ongoing policies being implemented by the current administration would “completely” eliminate fuel smuggling across borders.
“Well, sometimes we just want to assume that because of the subsidy, the problem will evaporate one day. So the sense I was trying to create was that it might take some time before the issue of smuggling of fuel across the border will completely dissipate,” he said.
“So in some border areas, we had reports of seizures of fuel and that is what we heard. So it was the assumption generally, that because the fuel is now sold at N500 per litre it will be a disincentive for smuggling.
“But contrary to that, we have seen that they are smuggling it across the borders. The rate at which this is being smuggled has reduced considerably.
“And it is our hope that by the time we mix some of these other policies that government is working on, it will completely eliminate the problems of smuggling of fuel across borders.”
