Tin can island port
By Uche Eletuo
Some maritime stakeholders have called on the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to improve its services in order to facilitate trade at the ports.
The stakeholders told the NAN in Lagos on Thursday that the NCS needed, as a matter of urgency, to upgrade its scanners at the ports.
They stated most of the automated scanners in the ports had become obsolete and needed to be replaced.
Mr Lucky Amiwero, President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agent (NCMDLCA), stated it was not to remind the NCS on what to do as they knew what they ought to do.
“There is a policy to conduct cargo examination via automated means by the use of scanners to ease service delivery and facilitate trade.
“But today how many of those machines can the Customs rely on for examination.
“We end up doing 100 per cent physical examination of cargoes in our ports, which for all intents and purposes delays operations,” Amiwero stated.
He explained that the NCS lacked the will to put progressive measures in place at the ports, adding that the NSC was not unaware of what needed to be done.
Amiwero stated that as players, it would continue to remind the NCS to make the sector responsive.
Also speaking on the issue, Joe Nnamocha, former executive of the Association of Nigeria Customs Licensed Agents (ANCLA), stated that he expected the NCS to be proactive in 2017.
“I wish to see a NCS that aids export trade to help the country bounce back in its revenue generation to shore-up the country’s dwindling crude oil fortunes.
“Some of us who are making attempts to get into theexport business have constraints put in place by the customs,” Nnamocha stated.
Mr Tony Uzum, the Managing Director of Kizito Maritime Agency LTD, stated undue delays caused by officers not being at their duty post should be dealt with.
“The attitude is common in bonded warehouses located outside Apapa.
“Such delays in examining cargoes at bonded warehouses is rubbing negatively on the service of the NCS,” Uzum stated.
reports that Prince Olayiwola Shittu, the ANCLA National President, had earlier called for a replacement of the scanners at the ports.
Meanwhile, the NCS Public Relations Officer, Mr Wale Adeniyi, told that the service would soon make public some measures it would take to improve its services in 2017.
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