The Nigeria Customs Service has said it will collaborate with the Nigerian Representatives of Overseas Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to achieve the health components of the Millennium Development Goals.
The Comptroller-General, Mr. Hamman Ahmed, who was represented by the Assistant Comptroller-General, Zone A, Mr. John Atti, said this during the second edition of the business networking dinner of NIROPHARM in Lagos .
According to a NIROPHARM statement on Sunday, Ahmed said the MDGs on health were achievable.
He added that NCS was willing to collaborate with any organization that worked towards achieving the goals.
He noted that the service was particularly committed to achieving goal four of the MDGs, which is reduction of child mortality and goals five and six, which dealt with improved health and combating of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, adding a healthy population would increase the productive workforce and boost industrial and commercial activities.
He explained that NCS was structured to perform three basic roles of revenue generation and collection, enforcement of anti-smuggling laws and facilitation of trade.
The President, NIROPHARM, Mr. Ade Popoola, who is also the Group Managing Director, Reals Pharmaceuticals Limited, lamented that some members could not enjoy the concession granted by government because the covering documents had not been properly channelled and processed apart other bureaucratic bottlenecks..
Other challenges, according to Popoola, are conflicts on classification such as refusal to accept some products as ACT despite the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control classification, HS Code constraints, valuation constraints and time wastage.
He urged the comptroller- general to use his good office to help NIROPHARM members surmount the challenges.