{"id":8609,"date":"2013-08-19T03:39:49","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T03:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/bottleneck-at-nigerias-seaports-man-made-expert\/"},"modified":"2013-08-19T03:39:49","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T03:39:49","slug":"bottleneck-at-nigerias-seaports-man-made-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/bottleneck-at-nigerias-seaports-man-made-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Bottleneck at Nigeria\u2019s seaports man-made \u2013 Expert"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Frontline freight forwarder and pioneer chairman of Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarders in Nigeria (CRFFN), Tony Iju-Nwabunike at the weekend took a swipe at the government agencies operating at Nigerian seaports and some special units of the Nigeria Customs Service over the bottleneck associated with cargo delivery at the ports.<\/p>\n

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had early last year reduced the number of agencies from 14 to about six under which agencies like Standards Organisation of Nigeria, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) were barred from operating within the seaports.<\/p>\n

The minister had also dissolved some special units of Customs such as the Comptroller General\u2019s task force, among several others and also barred some regular units like the Enforcement and Customs Intelligence Unit from participating in cargo inspection.<\/p>\n

Nwabunike, who spoke in an interview, noted that the activities of these agencies and units collectively contribute to the non-realisation of the 48- hour cargo delivery target.<\/p>\n

\u201c48-hour cargo delivery is actually achievable but one of the major challenges to the realisation of this is the issue of duplication of tables and functions by the agencies operating at the ports\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

According to him, Customs has improved a whole lot in relation to cargo documentation, which could facilitate the achievement of 48-hour cargo delivery but regretted that the activities of these agencies and some units of the service have made it impossible for this projection to be realised several years after the port reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf every other thing is properly handled, Nigeria can achieve 48-hour cargo clearance but these security agencies that participate in cargo examination and clearance must be reduced to not more than two so that the ports can have an effective delivery of goods\u201d, he insisted.<\/p>\n

While reacting to allegations that a major cause of the delay is the lack of connectivity of the stakeholders, he said: \u201cI don\u2019t think this is a major problem because I can go to any of the designated cyber cafes to lodge my entry, it goes straight and so documentation is not the problem. The issue is the fi nal processes of the documentation, those who want to look at the documents whether they are genuine or not for selfi sh reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n

While arguing that with the present documentation process of the service one can take delivery of his consignments within 48 hours, he insisted that the real problem are those security agencies including those special units of Customs that have segmented themselves to extort money from port users.<\/p>\n

He however dismissed the belief that Nigeria needs latest version of the Automated System for Customs Data, which is ASYCUDA 007, which provides the single window platform to achieve 48-hour cargo delivery, insisting that even with the ASYCUDA + + 3.0, the country can realize the dream.<\/p>\n

He insisted that with the current level of automation at the ports, a very high level of effi ciency in the release of consignments can be achieved, which would include one making his entry from the comfort of his offi ce and releasing directly from the Customs Processing Centre (CPC).<\/p>\n

He however called on the government to take urgent steps towards further reduction of its agencies operating at the ports with a view of enthroning a regime of effi ciency at the seaports to make them competitive and user-friendly.<\/p>\n

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had recently released a report in which it alleged that it takes over 79 signatures to clear a consignment from Nigeria\u2019s seaports, which contributes to the high cost of doing business at the ports.<\/p>\n

The commission in its Corruption Risk Assessment (CRA) report on Nigerian seaports issued in conjunction with the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti- Corruption (TUGAR) and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) with the support of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) claimed that an importer or clearing agent requires a minimum of 79 signatures of government offi cials to clear goods.<\/p>\n

Consultant to the ICPC on the CRA study, Constantine Palicarsky who presented the report to stakeholders at a validation meeting, also identifi ed the lack of standard operation procedure by the various government agencies as a major hindrance to port operations thus giving rise to corruption in the system.<\/p>\n

He had claimed that while it takes 79 signatures to process a cargo in some ports, it takes over 100 signatures in other ports, an indication that the process is not harmonised, which breeds corruption.<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: National Mirror Newspaper<\/p>\n

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