PAAR BLAME GAME CONTINUES:

• Anxiety Over Looming Congestion At Lagos Ports
The on-going blame game over the Customs Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) continued yesterday, with fears of an imminent port congestion being expressed by freight forwarders, who also alleged that some bank officials are already doing brisk business with the essential customs clearance document

The stakeholders raised alarm of an existing racket between the commercial banks and some custom officers in the PAAR office.

Speaking with Shipping Position Daily in an exclusive chat yesterday, President of Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) Dr. Frank Ukoh alleged that in order for your PAAR to be issued within two days, a substantial amount of money is attached to the document which is forwarded from the bank to the customs PAAR office.

Dr. Ukoh said that "There is a syndicate working between the banks and the officers in the customs PAAR office, when you deposit your document and an amount of money at the bank, your document is transmitted immediately and you get your PAAR within two days, others that do not pay the money will have their cargoes delayed for forty days or more."

The AREFFN President lamented that many of the documents that went in for PAAR to be issued were not issued, and that new ones coming in are now piling up forcing congestion to build at the port.
The accusation comes few days after a cross section of bank officials had registered their fears at a meeting that was held at the instance of the Nigeria Customs Service, with to commercial bank officials as well some officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the service provider Web Fontaine.
The bankers had said that majority of the yet-to-be-cleared cargo at the ports do not have PAARs with which the banks could work.
Some of the bank officials who attended the Lagos meeting expressed apprehension, even as some of them acknowledged being embarrassed by their customer (importers) following the long delay in the issuance of PAAR by the Customs.
Speaking one after the other, some of them argued that the newly-introduced PAAR has put the banks under pressure as more hands had to be employed to meet with the current challenges they are facing.
But, the AREFFN President; Ukoh also raised alarm that, “the port is being congested, because goods that came in have no PAAR to clear them, if care is not taken there will be serious problem at the port".