Following the recent cases of illegal importation of arms into the country, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has said that full deployment of the Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) as proposed by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council is the solution to the trend.
The National President of the association, Chief Increase Uche who made this known in a chat with our correspondent in Lagos recently said that the adoption of the CTN was more preferable to him than the call in some quarters for the reintroduction of the Pre-shipment inspection.
He said,” To me, I prefer that CTN should be encouraged as being championed by the Shippers’ Council. Do you know why it is preferable if I am asked to choose is that the document contains the value of the cargo, the weight, the origin of that cargo, everything that has to do with the requirements for duty calculation and the actual content of that container is contained in CTN.
“So, any cargo coming to Nigeria must have CTN because that one will make us not to pay much to the service providers overseas. It will reduce the cost of doing that.
“I wouldn’t prefer that pre-shipment inspection should be brought back rather CTN but every amendment in cargo declaration right from opening of Form M should start with Form M processing if we want to get these things corrected because these people bringing those cargoes, the importers or the merchants who are trading on this illicit goods have perfected their processes and most times you see some of these people positioned as security agents are being used .
“So, if you return the responsibility of making this declaration to the traders’ side, you will discover that a freight forwarder who is supposed to offer advisory services to the importer or the consignee will be very careful”.
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