The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has advised on the use of technology in tracking cargos right from the ports of origin till it gets here.
The Director General of LCCI, Mr. Muda Yusuf, who said this recently in an interview with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos, also charged importers to imbibe professional ways of doing business.
He charged them to ensure there is proper communication between the importer and the shipping company right from the port of origin to the port of destination, stressing that there is need for importers to also be ethical.
Explaining further, he said there are people who import goods with the intention of cutting corners and when it failed to work, they will abandon the cargo.
“But what I think about overtime cargo is that people should also be very professional in the way they do business. If you are importing anything first, there should be proper communication between yourself, the shipping company and whoever that is sending the cargo, so that you know when the cargo is landing”
“There should also be a way to monitor these things online, the time the ship left and when it will be landing, they should use technology to monitor and track them. We also have to be very ethical because some people also import some cargoes with the hope of cutting corners, so when the things do not work, they will abandon the cargo. Because if you are importing something you should have an idea of what the duty is”, he said.
Yusuf charged officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to streamline their valuation process, because, according to him, is also one of the reasons there is high volume of overtime cargoes at the ports.
“Your cargo cannot come here and you say you don’t have money to pay duty except there is an arbitrary change in duty. If that is part of the reason, then the customs and the authorities have to check that. Because sometimes by the time you are placing the order the duty is one thing by the time it lands here the customs will be telling you that the duty is a different thing. And all these issues of valuation problem that the customs place for importers we need to streamline it”, he explained.
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