Even though the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has added the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) into the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS) 2 to hasten cargo clearance at the ports, SON has fingered false declaration by importers as the major reason its operatives still carry out physical examination of cargoes.
Director, Inspectorate and Compliance Directorate (ICD) of SON, Engineer Obiora Manafa who said this in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos, also said that the importers know the right things to do but will deliberately not do them.
Manafa maintained that the agency does not rely on the information supplied by importers, hence the need for physical examination.
He told our correspondent that: “If you go to the NICIS platform you will see a container number saying that the content is this, but when you see the container physically it will contain different thing. So false declaration is the problem, these importers know the right thing to do, but when they fail to do the right thing they will start blaming others. When we are sure that any information we see on the NICIS is correct information, nobody will disturb them. But when you carry LPG Cylinder and you declare on the platform of NICIS that you are carrying paper , that is the problem. So we insist on seeing what is inside the container we don’t rely the information they give we will like to see what is in the container”.
Oboira reiterated the agency’s commitment in ensuring that the influx of substandard goods into the country is stopped.
“The importers are those that bring in these goods we are talking about, so it is their duty to comply with the requirements of the standards.
So what we are preaching is for them to abide by the laws, regulations and standards of the profession. Those people that willfully go out there and bring in substandard goods it is not good for the economy and everybody”, he added.
According to him, the agency will continue to engage sister agencies in preaching the news against importation of substandard goods.'
“We will continue to engage our sister agencies, associations and the stakeholders, the aim is to preach to these people that are doing these”.
Speaking further he admitted that even though some importers are gradually abiding by the rules of standard requirements a lot still needs to be done to get the rest to comply.
“Although a lot of them are now complying because of our continual preaching and sensitization programme, many of them now operate with the standard and we are happy about that. But there are still those that don’t want to repent, they will go there and tell the manufacturers to manufacture something that doesn’t meet the standard. So these are the people we are targeting and we are appealing to them; we are not going to get tired of preaching to them”, he said.
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