Manual Examination, Extortion Are Major Issues at Lagos Ports, Laments ANLCA Chairman
By Francis UgwokeCustoms clearing agents at Lagos ports have continued to lament that manual examination of containers and extortion by some customs officers have remained major obstacles to trade facilitation in Nigeria.
The agents were reacting to the impact of the Nigerian Ports Process Manual (NPPM) on trade facilitation at the ports since it was introduced in December by the federal government with the objective of easing trade facilitation.
Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Mohammed Mojeed, in a chat with SHIPPING DAY said as good as the objective of NPPM is, so many issues were affecting it.
Mojeed identified physical examination instead of the use of scanners as a major clog on the wheel of trade facilitation, adding that it was delaying clearance of goods.
Speaking about his experience at the Tin Can Island port, he recalled that in the past when scanners were being used, between 50 and 100 containers could be examined in a day, but lamented that this has since changed to the worst scenario.
According to him, under the present circumstances, some agents who have about 30 containers may have only five dropped for examination, saying this affects many others.
He said that for an efficient trade facilitation, there was the need for the urgent installation of scanners at the ports.
He argued as far as physical examination continues, the problem of extortion will remain at the ports.
On extortion, he said that this could be traced to some of the infractions involving importers who have goods to clear at the ports.
“In our business, some declare whole-heartedly, some hide to cheat government. So that is where we have challenges”, he said.
The ANLCA Chairman also said that his association has been battling the issue of multiple alerts at the ports as among the reasons why there is delay in clearing of goods at the port.
He said the issues of manual examination and multiple alerts combine to cause delays and lead to demurrage at the ports, adding that those who benefit over this were the terminal operators.
He described as painful the issue of multiple alerts, adding that most times it is discovered to be frivolous and just to customs agents.
He also said it had been discovered that such alerts were initiated by some customs younger officers mainly to extort importers and their customs agents.
He disclosed that his association had met with the Tin Can Island Customs Controller, Mr Musa over the issue of multiple alerts, who had to intervene about three months ago and told officers that there should be genuine reasons before any alert is issued on any consignment.
He said since then the issue of multiple alerts has drastically reduced and everything becoming better at the port.
He also disclosed that terminal operators have improved in terms of dropping containers, adding that before it used to be 15 days because of congestion and obsolete equipment, but has now improved as a result of the efforts of the association.
According to him, with the efforts of the association, it now takes about two days to position containers.
He also condemned the issue of Task Forces staying close to the ports gates as against 40 kilometer away as provided by the Customs and Excise law.
He said there were between four to five Task Forces by the Customs who still have to stop movement of containers for a fresh check after such goods had been released by Customs officers in the port.
He described this as simply for the purpose of corruption, as customs agents are compelled to settle those at the checkpoints before the goods could be allowed to move.
Mojeed said it was following the complaint by his association that forced the Controller to intervene, adding that there is a Monitoring Team by the Controller to checkmate all the officers in respect of the clearing process.
He said when there is any infraction, members of the Monitoring Team will inform the controller for intervention.
According to him, contrary to allegation, the CAC’s Task Force is not for extortion but for monitoring activities at the ports.
FOLLOW US
About Post Author
