The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Skills Acquisition Centre for Seme Border and neighboring communities will be fully operational in July.
The Customs Area Controller, Seme Border Command, Comptroller Timi Bomodi, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Seme.
The centre which is part of the NCS Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was established for youths at Seme to enable border community residents embrace legitimate business rather than smuggling.
According to the controller, the centre will be completed before the end of June for the full take-off of the scheme in July.
“The establishment of the skills acquisition centre is to create opportunity for the people around the border community to earn a living without smuggling.
“This will give them opportunity to develop skills that they can easily learn and monetise when they deploy those skills.
“The skills are not complicated. They are going to learn how to make shoes, clothes, hairdressing, computer training, furniture, car repairs etc.
“We are building a big complex. We are at the advanced stages of getting all the facilities together.
“We know that if we can attract just 10 per cent of border community dwellers, that 10 per cent will significantly impact on the way these people think and how they go about trying to earn a living.
“Customs have told them that once they engage in legitimate trade, they will be engaging in something that has potential for domestic growth,” Bomodi said.
He said that once people knew that they could get a certain product at Seme Border area, they would attract attention and domestic growth from anywhere in the world.
Bomodi said that it would be difficult to keep smugglers away from their illegal activities if there were no alternative means of livelihood for them.
The Seme border customs boss said the skills acquisition centre would be inaugurated by the Comptroller-General of Customs.
He urged youths at the border area to take advantage of the scheme by deploying skills after learning than engaging in illegal activities.
Bomodi said the Seme skills acquisition facility was a pilot project to be replicated in other borders across the country.
He said that engaging border youths on skills acquisition would have very positive impact on the nation’s economy. (NAN).
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