Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Inde Dikko has laid bare his organisation’s strategy to achieve seamless import processes in the country.
Speaking at a colloquium tagged, “Seamless Shipping in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges” in Lagos, the Customs boss said the service has developed a Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) mechanism to eliminate bottlenecks in the nation’s import system.
Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Inde Dikko has laid bare his organisation’s strategy to achieve seamless import processes in the country.
Speaking at a colloquium tagged, “Seamless Shipping in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges” in Lagos, the Customs boss said the service has developed a Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) mechanism to eliminate bottlenecks in the nation’s import system.
Presenting a paper titled, “Pre-Arrival Assessment Report: An Initiative for Trade Facilitation and Enhanced Cargo Security”, the Comptroller General said even though progress had been made by concessionaires and service providers in their efforts to reform and modernise the nation’s shipping processes, the full potentialities of trade facilitation as envisioned under the Revised Kyoto Convention were yet to be realised.
Dikko, who was represented by the public relations officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, Deputy Comptroller Wale Adeniyi, assured that the PAAR mechanism would entrench a regime of cost-effective and timely clearance of consignments.
“It is gratifying to note that we now have in place a robust platform and a fully automated application system to build on. With its capacity for shared intelligence and risk management, the development of the PAAR application system will signal the dawn of a new era in fostering compliant trade in a secure environment: he said.
Time, he said, had come for stakeholders in the sector to work together with a view to delivering on the initiative.
“Our experience in implementing the 48-hour clearance of cargo has shown that only a seamless operation, involving all stakeholders collaborating and complementing themselves, can deliver the much-needed objective of cost-effective and timely clearance. No matter the advances recorded by Customs in automation, for instance, the marginal value will be insignificant if not complemented by similar developments in other stakeholder sectors. The entire shipping sector constitutes a long chain of which Customs is only but a part. As the saying goes, a chain is as strong as its weakest link,” the Customs boss said.
The Customs chief insisted that his men and officers were fully equipped to handle the transformation of the sector. To demonstrate their readiness for the PAAR system, two customs officers employed in 2011, ASC II Yaro Abdullahi Ibrahim and ASC II Bukola Omoniyi were assigned to do a presentation on the workings of the PAAR mechanism.
In their presentations, the officers explained that the mandate of Customs in the shipping sector was in the area of striking a balance in trade facilitation, security and revenue generation.
The PAAR mechanism, they added, acts as a one-stop shop for importers, clearing agents and other stakeholders to interact in a seamless way for the clearance of consignments.
The platform allows importers to submit all their import papers to all regulatory agencies through a single window and ensures that consignments are cleared before arriving at the shores of the country, Customs explained.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council; Mr Hassan Bello, said his organisation had initiated and supported different programmes to achieve a seamless shipping environment in the country.
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