The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has charged the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) to form a pressure group so as to ensure that the much-talked-about ease of doing business in the ports is achieved.
The service said this yesterday when a delegation of NAGAFF led by its national president, Chief Increase Uche, paid a courtesy visit to the Zonal Coordinator, Zone ‘A’, in Yaba, Lagos.
Speaking during the visit, the Zonal Coordinator, Assistant Comptroller General, (ACG) Aminu Dahiru, also urged the association to always mount pressure on Customs whenever it feels that there is something they are supposed to do that they are not doing.
"In this business is NAGAFF that I believe by their body and executives, they can form a pressure group that will provide the need for our collective effort to be achieved"
He also expressed his delight on the quality of members that are in NAGAFF, saying that he was very happy to host them.
"I have four appeals to make to NAGAFF; I see the association as the vehicle that we need to achieve our mandate. I am urging you all to remain complaint to import and export guidelines. Because I believe that if there are professionals abiding by the rule of the profession, we will go a long way. There is a way to find out if something was done intentionally or not and when a customs officer finds out that there is a mistake it might lead to compromise. It is you the freight forwarders that see these importers mostly we the customs officers don't see them. So, what I am saying in essence is that professionalism clears all the bottleneck", he told the NAGAFF delegation.
Speaking on non functional scanners at the ports, he said that scanners were introduced because of security challenges.
"The issue of scanners in the ports right from 2001 was not introduced because of customs duties it was introduced because of security challenges. It is not the duty of the customs to provide scanners"
He also accused freight forwarders for abusing some platforms like fast track that are meant to make the work easier.
"A company that was registered under four months entered fast track which is not good"
"I want to assure you of my cooperation and support whatever we can be resolved here we will do it without taking it to Abuja. I am thinking of having a silent public resolution desk where issues can be settled instead of taking it to the headquarters", he concluded.
In his welcome address, the National President of NAGAFF, Chief Increase Uche, said that the visit is geared towards strengthening relationship with the zonal coordinator.
"We appreciate the fact that you granted us the request. This visit is to further strengthen our relationship with you. It also aims at expressing our challenges in the business. We also appreciate the role the customs is playing in the area of revenue collection. This visit is critical in view of the executive order on the ease of doing business"
He also charged the service to look very well at the issue of customs examination and release of cargoes.
"There should be speed in the clearance of cargoes, there should also be trade and transport speed measures. We receive a lot of alerts and the activities of FOU ‘A’, when cargo is released and on their way out the same cargo will be stopped and seized by FOU ‘A’ officers is not good. There is also cargo interruption when the police will give order for a cargo to be stopped" he complained.
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