Stakeholders Bemoan Hiccups in Cargo Clearance

Stakeholders in the maritime sector of the economy have stated that clearance of goods in the nation’s seaports and international borders have improved tremendously since the beginning of last year.

They however maintained that cargo dwell time (CDT) is still far from what is obtainable in ports situated in developed maritime nations, where consignments are cleared faster and at a lower cost.

THISDAY had a few weeks ago raised issues that border on the successful implementation of 48 hours cargo clearance regime in Nigerian ports, even as it called for readers’ response.

This is against the backdrop of the poor implementation of the 48 hours cargo clearance regime initiated by the Federal Government during Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration to ensure that consignments, which arrived in Nigerian ports, are cleared within 48 hours.

The immediate past National President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Chief Ernest Elochukwu, admitted that the cargo clearing process across Nigerian ports has improved significantly since last year.

He however stated that despite this feat, there is still what he described as “hiccups in the industry” in the clearance process. He maintained that the attainment of 48-hours cargo clearance time in Nigeria is still an illusion because of inherent impediments in the cargo clearance process.

“The situation in the port is still bad. This is because government is not committed to achieving an expected result. Government engage in talking, rhetoric, and nothing more”, he said. He observed that 48-hour cargo clearing is not working, because it was not geared to achieve optimum focus.

Comparing Nigeria with Ghana, Elochukwu said the latter is doing better in respect of cargo clearing process. He said while Ghana is already achieving 48-hour cargo clearance, Nigeria would continue to lag behind because of multiple agencies at the ports and international borders.

“Presently, it is not only the issue multiple government agencies that is the problem. There are multiple units of the multiple agencies. This is terrible,” Elochukwu stated.

On his part, Managing Director of Multimodal Logistics Limited, and chieftain of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Mr. Joe Sanni, said the new customs clearing procedures would only succeed if the multiplicity of government agencies in the ports, especially the duplication of customs duties/desks, are removed or drastically reduced to the barest minimum.

He stated that government agencies are not as irritating as the customs CIU, enforcement, valuation, gate control, and tally who, apart from taking almost two hours each to get a completely irrelevant signature of one officer, who never shows up, until noon, also engage in bare-faced extortions.

His words: “I was on a fact-finding tour of Tin Can Island Port (TCIP) Customs Command recently, where I was confronted with the destructive part of the human elements of the new cargo process. My first impression of the area housing the Customs Examination/Releasing officers offices, is worst than a market.

“The multitude of agents waiting to see one agency/officer or the other, milled around the entire space is worrisome. That alone was disgusting. My candid experience of this particular part of TCIP area command is not too different from other sections of TCIP’’.

Source : Thisday