The Nigerian Shippers Council have condemned the inability of the Nigeria Customs Service to get containers scanned at the ports as a result of faulty scanners manned at the nation's ports.
Executive Secretary of the Council, Barrister Hassan Bello stated this recently in Lagos at a forum with journalists.
The Nigerian Shippers Council have condemned the inability of the Nigeria Customs Service to get containers scanned at the ports as a result of faulty scanners manned at the nation's ports.
Executive Secretary of the Council, Barrister Hassan Bello stated this recently in Lagos at a forum with journalists.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that scanning machines mounted at the nation's ports and border post have since stopped working, thereby making the Customs to subject all cargoes to 100 percent examination, a process that has generated a lot of complaints from freight forwarders.
The Shippers’ Council Boss noted that the Customs is presently carrying out 100 percent cargo examination of all cargoes at the port, a development which he described as tedious and not facilitating trade.
He hinted that the Council is initiating a port community system where it is going to meet regularly with all the operators at the port, including the Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Customs, Plant Quarantine, Nigerian Immigration Service and other agencies at the port.
The agency frowned at the fact that vessels are delayed at the port unnecessarily by boarding agencies in the name of carrying out inspection on the vessels.
It would be recalled that at the take off of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) by the Customs, the Comptroller General of the service, Dikko Inde Abdullahi had promised to import 50 scanning machines which he promised to mount at various ports.
Bello said: "Our agencies are working hard, and the NPA particularly is important. The customs have also made tremendous progress as far as automation is concerned"
"However, we have to tell them that the scanners are not working as it should be, so they are carrying out 100 percent cargo examination which is tedious, time wasting and primitive, this should not be so"
"We have the operating procedure of the customs and we are still discussing. The Plant Quarantine, the Port Health, we have that of the NPA and NIMASA, it all has to be streamlined with a time line"
"The ship has so many stages to go and if you are detaining it, you are wasting time and incurring cost, so we hope to launch this POS very soon so that we will have a smooth flow chat and everybody will know their responsibilities, they will all come together because you cannot shave someone's hair in his absence"
"And there will be sanctions if the POS is not followed to the letter and this will bring about efficiency" Bello stated
He however commended the NPA over the introduction of a platform called; Electronic Ship Entry (e-SEN) which was introduced last year by Mallam Habib Abdullahi.
According to him, gone were the days when delays occur because ship payment can only be effected in six days. He said that the process now takes only six seconds.
"Our agencies are working hard, and the NPA particularly is important. The customs have also made tremendous progress as far as automation is concerned"
"Terminal operators have helped in revolutionizing the port processes; they have made investments and improvements", he said.
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