Apparently not satisfied with the call by the President of the Shippers’ Association Lagos State, Rev. Jonathan Nicole that the government should scrap the Standards Organization of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP), the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) has fired back at the association, saying that shippers that have problems with SONCAP are the non-compliant ones.
Speaking with journalists on the sideline of a training programme for clearing agents at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents(ANLCA) yesterday, SON Director General; Dr. Joseph Odumodu fired back, saying that the challenges highlighted by the shippers are only experienced by those who are non-compliant.
Odumodu was represented by Mr. Suleiman Isa, Deputy Director and head of ports operations.
Rev. Nicole had told Shipping Position Daily in Lagos on Tuesday that SONCAP causes delay for shippers who want to clear their cargoes from the port.
But Odumodu yesterday explained that compliant importers would get their SONCAP certificate which is transmitted electronically before importation is done. He cleared that before processing of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) they would have got the electronic SONCAP Certificate.
Odumodu said that SONCAP cannot be scrapped because it is not a SON project; he said it is a project initiated by the Federal Government and which comprises of other relevant government agencies.
For non-compliant shippers, Odumodu said that the agency created a window for them three months ago to clear the backlog of their cargoes already at the port. He said that this will close by December 10, 2015.
He said that: "I know there are challenges, but they are not associated with the normal processing of SONCAP, those who are going for the normal processing follow due process"
"Those who go for that process do not have any problems, the problems is for those who have shipped in their consignments and they do not have certificates, these are the problems we are trying to solve now".
"A window was created; Electronic Provisional Compliance Clearance Certificate which will close by the 10th of December"
"SONCAP has been made easier and the human contact is no longer there, you don't need to go to our SON office to process it, where we are having challenges is area of non-compliance" he said
Odumodu noted that trade can only be facilitated if all relevant government agencies come on a single platform to operate.
"When you do this, time for processes will become short and business will become cheaper. A lot of other government agencies are still coming on-board, it is all being coordinated by the CISS and the Projects Implementation Team involving all government agencies" he explained
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