World Bank Tasks Nigeria Customs on Automation, Delay in Goods Clearance
Hammed Ali, CG, Customs
By Our Reporter
The World Bank on Tuesday called on the Nigeria Customs Service to do everything to eliminate delays in the clearance of goods at the ports and border stations..
The apex bank said all the Nigeria Customs needs to do was to simplify and harmonise documents and automate procedures of clearance.
The bank in its November 2021 Development Update on Nigeria said the Service could as well come up with risk-based interventions.
According to the bank, facilitating quick clearance of imported goods out of the ports, especially the ports of Lagos, was very important for trade facilitation..
The report said eight million Nigerians fell into poverty in less than two years due to shocks from inflation.
The report added that Nigeria no longer benefits from the higher oil prices as a result of sustaining petroleum subsidy.
According to the report, “Nigeria is the only country in the world with a universal price subsidy that applies exclusively to PMS. Universal price subsidies for liquid fuels are almost always regressive, as the rich consume far more fuel than the poor,” the report stated.
“PMS subsidies are especially regressive because PMS is used primarily in light- and medium-duty motor vehicles, which are rarely owned by the poor. Since raising PMS prices tends to have minimal adverse effects on poor households, governments worldwide have typically prioritised eliminating PMS subsidies over those that apply to other fuels.
“However, Nigeria has done the opposite – eliminating all subsidies for liquid fuels other than PMS. Moreover, the Nigerian PMS subsidy is exceptionally generous, and in October 2021 the PMS pump price was the seventh-lowest among 168 economies surveyed at just ₦495 per litre,”
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