A total of 43 winners have emerged from the first round of bidders in the recently launched Nigeria Customs Service(NCS) electronic auction of seized and condemned items .
The portal, https:app.trade.gov.ng/eauction went live on July 1,2017 as earlier announced by the NCS amidst doubts that it was real as a result of fear of scammers.
Customs spokesman, Joseph Attah who confirmed the number of winners, described the first attempt as a success and assured that the system would continue to improve for the benefit of its users and the government.
He said the Information Communication Technology (ICT) Department of the service has intensified efforts to achieve ease of using the application portal.
Attah said, ”The maiden round which lasted for 48 hours, had vehicles of different makes, categories and models.It featured 282 registered bidders . A total of 268 bidders were enabled while 245 of them generated e-wallets assessment. 68 people were able to recharge their e-wallets with N1000 before bidding .
Attah added that those who were unable to utilise their recharged e-wallets before first batch 48 hours elapsed could use it to bid when the second batch comes up on Monday 10th July, 2017 for another 48 hours bidding period.
He said the identified challenges encountered in the first batch were being addressed by the ICT unit of the customs hoping that more commercial banks would come on board to ease access for payments.
”We are coming up with the second batch which will be uploaded on Monday and will stay up for another 48 hours before that batch of bidding will close again. The Service appears to be leaving up to its promise of providing equal opportunities for all interested persons while generating revenue for the Government through the e – auction.
”Our Controller General ,Col. Hameed Ali is committed to ensuring the highest degrees of transparency and fairness are maintained in the auction process. We will continue to guard against any form of abuse.
” Nigerians should have no reason to fear or worry over the activities of fraudsters as this system will keep them shut out permanently”, Attah said.
The ongoing process is in line with Section 167 (2) CAP C45 and Section 2 (1) and (2) CAP C46 of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA), which gives the Service the powers to dispose seized and overtime cargoes after they must have undergone judicial process(court condemnation).
Non perishable items seized by the customs have been in various Government Warehouses across the country for over 18 months when auctions were suspended.
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