The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has urged the Federal Government to invite private investors to purchase scanning machines at Nigerian ports on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis.
The association has equally kicked against the proposed Palletization of imported cargoes, a policy of the Federal Government which was rolled out in 2017 and expected to commence effectively in January 2018.
National Publicity Secretary of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto told Shipping Position Daily in Lagos yesterday that Palletization would lead to her members losing their clients and ultimately lead to 45% of Nigerian cargoes being diverted to neighboring countries.
He alleged that the Federal government introduced the Palletization policy in an attempt to shy away from procuring functional scanners at Nigerian ports.
He argued that as a result of implementation of Palletization policy, cost of freight will increase and duty rate will also be increased.
"Palletization is not the solution to the problem we have on ground, the government is failing in its responsibility and it is shying away from the truth. The truth is that the issue of scanner purchase should be made a PPP agreement or there should be an arrangement for an investor to bring in new scanning machines"
"The scanners should also be able to scan our farm produce going for export. Palletization will add to the cost of cargo clearance, it would also make space to reduce, if you are importing a consignment that should fit into a 20foot container, you would end up using two containers, by this, cost of freight will increase, number of containers and duty rate will increase and this does not make sense"
"The government is shying away from buying scanners at the port, Palletization will not solve our problems, we have been shouting in the past two years for scanning machines, if they had ordered for the scanning machines, we would have gotten it by now, instead they are introducing Palletization which will end up diverting 45% of our cargoes to neighbouring countries"
"This means we would not be able to cub smuggling, it would affect the policing of our borders, it may likely increase the number of officers that may die this year"
Shipping Position Daily recalls that the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun had said that Palletization should start by January 2018 and that whoever did not bring in their cargoes by pallets should pay 35% of FOB.
The ANLCA have however said that the last have not been heard about Palletization because it will encourage importers diverting their cargoes to ports of neighbouring countries.
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