President Mohammadu Buhari has approved the operation of a single window for all agencies in the maritime sector.
Minister of Transportation; Mr. Rotimi Amaechi who confirmed this in Lagos yesterday at the opening of a 2-day Stakeholders Conference, stated that the single window will eliminate corruption in the maritime sector.
He however said his ministry is experiencing challenges with the Nigeria Customs Service in terms of giving full support towards achieving the single window. He said he was going to sit again with the Customs find a lasting solution.
With the single window, the minister assured that human contact at the port and in cargo clearance, with the attendant bribery and corruption would be eliminated.
He said: "In the maritime sector, the President has approved for a single window, if we introduce the single window, corruption will stop in the maritime sector"
"If you want to eliminate corruption, you have to computerise the system, if human beings are not seen, bribes will not be collected"
"You will see very few persons, the reasons why the corruption thrives is because there are so many human beings you have to meet before taking delivery of your cargo, and if you don't deal with them you would not get your cargo"
"But if everything is computerised, who will the person give bribes to? "
Also addressing fears that were expressed that the system might be circumvented, he stated that before he leaves office, the single window will be out in full fledge.
"All I needed was presidential approval and we have gotten that"
"Let history have it that we have done our bit, let history say that it was our regime that we introduced single window and we are able to enforce it"












Discussion about this post