Personality of The Week: Edwin Fongod Nuvaga, Customs Director General.

Be that as it may, Cameroon and its miracle success stories has always had reason to stay strong and chart a new course. 

Most of these success stories have often been tested and proven in the face of adversity. Though tenacity is among the make-up of many a Cameroonian, the go-getters are almost non-existent.

It is an assessment on the apex, reserved only for geniuses with practical exploits in real life that tie to their scintillating academic records. 

For this season, millions of readers of The Guardian Post, a time tested and premium media enterprise in the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS, have constrained us to the marvelous work at the Directorate General of the Customs Department, under the usually results-oriented Fongod Edwin Nuvaga.

As Director General of the Customs Department, our readers, scattered across the globe, have drawn varied but cogent conclusions that Fongod meets the high calling to feature as Cameroon’s Personality of This Week. 

But on what bases? Our readers have factored in recent innovations at the Customs Department and its record-breaking revenue generation in 2023, as telling of the finesse with which Fongod Edwin is managing the institution.

Just this week, the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, who is the boss of the Director General of Customs, was full of praises for the work Fongod and his collaborators did for the State in 2023. 

As the country celebrated this year’s International Customs Day under the theme: “Customs engaging traditional partners with purpose”, Motaze situated the spot the Customs Department occupies in government’s 2020-2030 National Development Strategy, SND30.

He also cited the institution as a prime mover in the Import Substitution Policy of President Paul Biya. 

For the Customs Department to get not just the pass mark but excellent scores is not a given. 

It is a rendition which our readers take pride in concluding on that, the Customs DG, Edwin Fongod Nuvaga, is Personality of The Week.

For doubters, this quiet but avid nation builder has to his credit at the helm of the Customs Department, a track record of constantly increasing State revenue, even in the face of national and international constraints and security challenges. 

His ceiling-shattering records at the Customs Department, those who lived the much younger days of Fongod, say is a replay of his exceptional academic records.

Under his control, the Customs Department was expected to raise 1,004.7 billion FCFA in 2023, but ended up raising 1019.8 billion FCFA!  

In 2022, the State assigned him a mission of raising 863.9 billion FCFA, he and his team went overboard, hitting 897.4 billion FCFA.  

In 2021, 804.7 billion FCFA was the target but the Customs Department raised 852.3 billion FCFA. 

In 2020, 650 billion FCFA was the share of revenue expected from the Customs Department but the Fongod-led team raised 841.2 billion FCFA. 

In 2019, the government challenged him to raise 850 billion FCFA, then he beat the record by putting into the public cash-box 861.2 billion FCFA.

This ascendency in raising revenue for the State, our readers say, puts the Customs Department under Fongod, in the realms of one of the best managed and performing State institutions.

Unlike the popular saying that “it is only the unexpected that makes a Customs officer to think”, Fongod is an all-round thinker and workaholic.

His leadership as Customs DG has put smiles on the faces of Customs clients in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC Subregion, while at the same time keeping the State treasury buoyant.

While many have been hoping for the best, Fongod has gone beyond that to make Cameroon’s Customs legendary in service delivery. 

They see him as a good leader because he is a good servant. At every single point of contact with the Cameroon Customs Department, the effect of his people-friendly premium leadership has been experienced.

Even as many are always craving to be appreciated, Edwin Fongod is rather always craving to serve the country, the underprivileged and the oppressed. 

He is a mythical networker. Cameroon’s Customs administration has perpetually been under observation and innovation, under his control.

Though businesses run on people, product and profit, Fongod Edwin Nuvaga has taken the Customs Department to the pedestal of contributing to safety, raising revenue and maintaining integrity and bringing honour to the country. 

Under his command, the institution has been mobilised to be wholeheartedly devoted to efficient and timely service delivery.

Many have been fighting to broaden the scope of their influence without any meaningful work on ground, but this is not the case with Fongod. 

He is rather an overachiever who hardly talks but the outcome of his committed service to nation has been remarkable under all circumstances.

One of his greatest assets is his unending innovative prowess. He is a man who has a knack for positive disruptive changes.  

The greatness of the Customs Department is also based on the pride Fongod takes in serving the country genuinely and selflessly. 

He had long changed the nature and value system of the Cameroon’s Customs Department. 

The result, it is now being said, is the ever-increasing revenue collection, year after year, for the state and a decline in contraband and offensive activities.

His administration has lifted the best and most gifted Customs officers, giving preference to meritocracy and guaranteeing the common good of the nation in the process. 

Fongod’s noble spirit, which has remained in search of the greatest service to country, admirers say, puts him in the class of Golden Patriots. 

Unlike other power-thirsty and publicity-seeking underachievers, who mount rooftops to blow their trumpets, each time they offer a service to nation, the usually humble and publicity-shy Fongod talks less and acts more.

The policies and reforms he has introduced at the Customs Department, since December 21, 2015, when he took over as boss of the institution, have been guided by peace, love and empathy not pressure. 

His leadership style has projected the place of service, irrespective of ranks and titles. Such humane and orderly atmosphere have resulted in a national revival to serve. 

Many who know Fongod have hugely saluted his dexterity in keeping pace with swift dynamics that have put nations in distress. 

But in Cameroon, he has put the Customs Department ahead of obstacles, aligning to national and international norms akin to a knife passing through butter.

Fongod’s power and ingenuity in making the right choices at the right time are yet other attributes that have put him in an atmosphere of bliss. 

While great engineers have been celebrated for designing gadgets, Fongod, enthusiasts say, stands out as a unique and rare Customs engineer who has stayed patriotic and forward looking in modernising Cameroon’s Customs Department. 

The insight, integrity and inspiration of Your Personality of The Week at the helm of the Customs Department, our readers concur and rightly so, have been incredible.

He has risen and is rising again to the pinnacle of honour, for having the capacity and putting it to use in skilling the Customs Department, unlike other individuals who kill State institutions handed to them. 

In fact, today, it is being said and aptly so, that Fongod is a major catalysing character in the success story of the Customs Department. 

He is a man who sees every form of service as an opportunity to express love and show men another side of God. 

Fongod is not among the class of fame-seeking individuals who parade the corridors of power making noise. 

He is a man who focuses on the assignment handed to him by hierarchy every step of the way. He sees challenges as opportunities to introduce innovations and know-how. 

Despite being given a star treatment this season for his consecutive achievements, our readers say they are aware that Fongod’s being on the mountain top is the outcome of growth born out of commitment. 

He is a man who has his heart at the Customs Department and the Customs Department in his heart.

When it comes to the staff, Fongod has prioritised work development initiatives and a competitive spirit to keep the quality service and revenue generation momentum alive. 

When it comes to success, Fongod’s performance, millions of our readers say, shows he is a man who knows the end is never in sight. He is a genius with a possibilitarian mindset. The word quit is not in his dictionary.

In addition to his innovations are the Cameroon Customs Information System, CAMCIS, the electronic payment of Customs duties and taxes, the introduction of the electronic manifest management, e-Manifest and the interfacing of Computerised Customs System that covers foregin trade operations, ASYCUDA. 

The extension of a cargo tracking application to cover countries such as Chad and the Central African Republic, is also another feat. Many Customs transactions have gone digital and paperless under his reign.

With over three decades of service in the Customs administration, Fongod has risen through the ranks. 

He rose from working in the verification service to be boss of the Customs sectors of the North West and Littoral Regions. 

At one time, he was Head of Division in charge of Litigation. Fongod also headed the Information Technology Department of the Customs. 

On December 21, 2015, President Biya handed him the top job of Customs Director General, DG. 

The Senior Customs Inspector was the best of his batch at the National School of Administration and Magistracy, ENAM. This was in 1989. He also holds a doctor of philosophy, PhD in development studies from the University of Yaounde I.

He served as Vice Chairman of the World Customs Organisations, WCO, for West and Central Africa, from 2016 to 2017. 

Fongod was also Chairman of the Subcommittee of the Chief Executives of Customs of the African Union, AU from 2017 to 2018. He is a member of the WCO Audit Committee.

The avid supporter of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, also holds decorations from the Head of State. 

 Among them are Officer of the National Order of Valour and Knight of the National Order of Valour. 

He also holds a medal from the World Customs Organisation. 

Your Personality of The Week, millions of our readers, say and perfectly so, is a decisive and pragmatic nation builder and national hero of quintessential standing.