48 HOURS CARGO CLEARANCE TARGET BY NPA AND NSC IN 2016

To promote trade facilitation, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) may introduce the much-awaited 48-hour cargo clearance next year, it has been learnt.

NPA Managing Director Mallam Habib Abdullahi and his NSC counterpart Mr Hassan Bello took this decision, following the directive of Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi, who visited NPA Lagos office last week.

“With the new directive from this government, NPA and the NSC officials are strategizing on how to achieve the 48-hour cargo clearance early next year,” the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMoF) a senior official, who did not want his named mentioned, said.

The official identified sharp practices and charges for services not rendered as factors militating against the 48-hour clearance and urged the Ministers of Transport and Finance to address the problem.

“We are aware that NPA and NSC are not happy over the past failure of 48-hour cargo clearance policy. Apart for the fact that the delays experienced in cargo clearance disrupted the production schedules of manufacturers as raw materials are not delivered in good time to their factories, they affected their revenue and were responsible for high level of corruption at the port as importers struggled to clear their cargoes under harsh conditions. This again exacerbate inflation as goods were not quickly cleared from the port to meet relevant needs in the economy.

“In the past, the Federal Government had made several failed attempts to achieve 48-hour cargo clearance at the ports. Former President Goodluck Jonathan administration had at a time constituted a presidential committee under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Finance, with some co-opted members from the Ministry of Transport, to address the perennial problem of long cargo dwell time at the ports.

“But what could rightly be termed as the achievement of the government intervention, unfortunately, was that it merely succeeded in getting a backlog of cargoes cleared to ease port congestion. After that, it became business as usual,” the official added.

Meanwhile, over 6,000 shippers, it was gathered, have keyed into the International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN) introduced by NSC to secure the ports and environ. ICTN, it was learnt, would also assist the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in risk profiling, assessment and valuation to move cargoes out of the ports within 48 hours.

Investigation has shown that as from January 1, next year, any vessel that fails to comply with the ICTN would be penalized.

Contacted, Bello spoke of the need to streamline cargo clearance procedures and ensure that the ports compete with others in West and Central Africa.

“Nigerian ports are in competition with other ports within the sub-region, so we have to streamline our clearance procedures–the way we do business – so that we can attract more cargoes to Nigerian ports,” he said.

Credit:  thenationonlineng.net