…As Ports Gist marks 3rd Year Anniversary
The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has called on the Nigeria Customs Service to hasten the ongoing full integration/automation process so as to link up the critical stakeholders in the industry on the platform.
Speaking at the 3rd Year Anniversary of Ports Gist and Events on MITV and a one day Workshop on appraisal of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) in the last ten months in Lagos on Wednesday, the National President of NAGAFF, Chief Eugene Nweke also called on the Shipping Companies and Terminal Operators to do the same as it would further help to reduce the incidences of human contact in the clearing process.
Nweke while delivering a paper titled,” X-raying and analyzing the effectiveness of PAAR as a modern tool for trade facilitation-underscoring PAAR performance and implementation challengers”, stated that the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) remained a capable modern trade facilitation tool compliant to international best practices which required that some of the identified hiccups needed to be addressed.
According to him, “ I wish to implore the Nigeria Customs’ Administration to fast track the full integration/automation process linking critical stakeholders on the platform while the Shipping Lines and Terminal Operators are equally advised to follow suit as this will further reduce the incidences of human contact to cargo”.
“I make bold to state that PAAR remains a capable modern trade facilitation tool compliant to international best practices hereby requiring that some of the issues raised above be addressed squarely”.
He maintained that the provision of at least two weeks to conclude all documentation processes before the arrival of the vessel was unbeatable adding that this could only be so if diligent efforts and honesty was applied in all aspects of international transactions and clearance processes within the ports.
“This is the sure way to true attainment of the 48 hour cargo clearance out of Port as canvassed by the Federal government”, he said.
On her part, the Chairperson of the event and Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Mrs. Inna Maryam Ciroma said that although PAAR encountered some teething problems at the inception, it had been a tremendous success presently.
Ciroma who was represented at the event by the Area Manager of NIWA Lagos, Mr. Muazu Sambo noted that the success PAAR had recommended lately could be attributed to the resilience of the Men and officers of the Nigeria Customs Service who had to weather the storms to get to the point they were today.
She said,” I must say as a Nigerian that this regime which in its early stage people were not sure of how it was going to fare, a lot of us can bear testimony today that the PAAR regime has been a tremendous success thus after giving glory to God, it should be extended to our men and women of the Nigeria Customs Service”.
Our men and women of the Nigeria Customs Service can stand shoulder to shoulder with any customs service in the world. Whenever I have the opportunity of interacting with the customs Service especially as it relates to the maritime sector, I am proud that Nigeria has the type of customs service it had”.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Producer of Ports Gist and Events on MITV, Dr. Kayode Farinto disclosed that he was skeptical about the success of PAAR at inception but having seen the achievements recorded with PAAR in recent times, he had since changed his mind and became an ardent supporter of the regime.
“But to my greatest surprise, I did a kind of research and investigations on the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report and I noticed that the Nigeria Customs Service Management team has spent one-tenth of what the various Inspection agents were collecting from the Federal government after eight years for issuing RAR (Risk Assessment Report)”.
You need to know that over two billion Naira if not Five billion Naira had been spent to issue RAR but less than one billion Naira had been spent on PAAR. The point here now is that PAAR is our own document, it is a home grown document”, Farinto stated.
The event featured the unveiling of a new Monthly Magazine named Ports, Entertainment and Business (PEB) Magazine published by the Ports Gist and Events on MITV conferment of different categories of Awards to some deserving individuals.
