Banks have joined the growing list of critics of the Customs Pre Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), saying that the new cargo clearance system is responsible for the backlog of un-cleared cargo at the various ports across the country.
They registered their fears at a recent meeting that was held at the instance of the Nigeria Customs Service, with to commercial bank officials as well some officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the service provider Web Fontaine.
Banks have joined the growing list of critics of the Customs Pre Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), saying that the new cargo clearance system is responsible for the backlog of un-cleared cargo at the various ports across the country.
They registered their fears at a recent meeting that was held at the instance of the Nigeria Customs Service, with to commercial bank officials as well some officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the service provider Web Fontaine.
They said that majority of the yet-to-be-cleared cargo at the ports do not have PAARs with which the banks could work.
The banks also said that there is a near crisis situation at the port following the inability of the Customs to transmit processed Pre- Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) to the banks for on ward transmission to their importers to commence the process of cargo clearance.
Some of the bank officials who attended the Lagos meeting expressed apprehension, even as some of them acknowledged being embarrassed by their customer (importers) following the long delay in the issuance of PAAR by the Customs.
Speaking one after the other, some of them argued that the newly-introduced PAAR has put the banks under pressure as more hands had to be employed to meet with the current challenges they are facing.
One of them, Moses Omotayo of Wema Bank called on Customs to stop running the newspaper advertisements and Television commercials, saying that such adverts are often misleading.
According to him, the notion that cargo can be delivered in 48 hours is very misleading and untrue when in actual fact, document leading to the release of these cargoes are stocked for up to two and sometimes four months.
According to an official of Citi Bank; Michael Onwujika, his bank has more than 2,000 PAAR documents belonging to various importers that are yet to delivered by the Customs.
Yet another banker who also attended the event; Taiwo Egbeyemi of Access, stated that there is a crisis situation in the port that need immediate attention, adding that the payment of import duty has become a major challenge occasioned by the current situation.
Similarly, Ogazi Achiko of Diamond Bank submitted that unless both the Customs and CBN put their acts together, the current crisis will linger on for a long time.
Mr Sherif Adeoyo of Guaranty Trust Bank however called on the Customs management to write to the Chief Executives of the Banks with a view to ensure that they are carried along in the entire process.
In his reaction, Deputy Comptroller of Customs in charge of PAAR at the Customs headquarters in Abuja, Mr. Ony Egboma explained that the major cause of the problem is that a lot of importers have refused to comply with the new import policy.
Egboma however assured that the Customs will clear the backlog in the next one month, adding that the enhanced PAAR system will quicken cargo clearance process.
Also speaking at the meeting, the Managing Director of Web Fontaine, Mr. Muktar Ahmed called on the banks to avail their staff of the training on the new PAAR enhanced system with a view to getting out of the current crisis.
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