The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Mr. Hassan Bello has said that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) soon to be introduced by the Council would address a lot of issues militating against trade in the Nigerian Maritime industry.
Bello who was speaking at an event in Lagos recently listed those issues to be addressed by the CTN to include revenue loss to the government, insecurity of the nation, non-competitiveness of the nation’s ports and arbitrary charges even as he listed the gains inherent in the Note to include generation of real time information and statistics on inbound cargoes, trade facilitation among others.
Represented by an Assistant Director in the Council, Mr. Celestine Akujobi, the NSC boss reiterated the earlier position of the Council on the new CTN that it would not come with any additional burden to importers and their agents as it was carefully designed without any cost component to the importer.
According to him,” When the President (of IMAN) was talking before, he mentioned about the non-competitiveness of our ports and the Cargo Tracking Note is a way to address that problem so that when you talk about security, they mentioned the issue of arms and ammunitions and a lot of things. When cargoes are coming into Nigeria today, you see that we rely on information from the ports but with the Cargo Tracking Note, you get that information right from the port of loading of cargo because it is filled by the exporter there and sent to us directly here. You may have the information when the issues of ammunition or contraband goods are coming into the country, the Cargo Tracking Note will help us know that that consignment is coming into the country.
“Again, on the issue of revenue collection, it is not as if Cargos Tracking Note will start giving us money, no, but just that as had been mentioned earlier, we have a lot of leakages in the system. We all know that there is a lot of corruption going on in Nigeria today and with the introduction of Cargo Tracking Note, if for instance, revenue accruing to the government is $10 billion, Nigeria will receive that $10 billion unlike what is presently happening.
“Then, on the issue of generation of real time information and statistics, now when you talk of the fact that when you depend on customs, Ports Authority and some agencies as per the statistics, the data of imports coming into this country, you discover that at times, there is a lot of discrepancies but with the Cargo Tracking Note or Advanced Cargo Declaration, you have real time information, as it is leaving there, you are getting the information here.
“Then the last one there is o trade facilitation. It is when you have all that information, it is very easy for you to plan, it is very easy for you to assess, it is very easy for you to do a lot of things”, he said.
Bello therefore called on all freight forwarders and stakeholders to partner the council to ensure that the CTN became operational in Nigeria.
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