Author: Saint Augustine

In its move to reposition the service for improved revenue collection, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has redeployed a total of eight Assistants Comptroller General (ACGs) and twenty-two Comptrollers of Customs amongst them, the Zonal Coordinator of Zone A, ACG Banke Adeyemo. Primetime Reporters gathered that ACG Banke Adeyemo who was posted as the Zonal Coordinator  Zone A comprising Lagos and most south-west states barely five months ago has been redeployed to Tariff and Trade (T & T) at the Customs headquarters in Abuja. It was said that her redeployment may not be unconnected to the failure of the zone to…

…calls for a halt to blame game syndrome A security meeting involving the Commissioner of Police, Western Ports Police Command and the leaders of the various association operating in the Western Ports has ended in Lagos with a call on all concerned to take the security, especially that of the ports as a challenge. The meeting which was at the instance of the Commissioner of Police in-charge of the Western Ports, Mr. Kayode Aderanti had most of the associations operating in the ports in attendance, with top officers of the Western Ports Command and the Divisional Police Officers (DPOs). The…

…says it is counterproductive The former Chairman, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr. Kayode Farintho has faulted the early implementation of the new auto policy by the Nigeria Customs Service last month. Farintho who spoke in an exclusive chat with Primetime Reporters in his office in Lagos recently said the policy was not going to help the economy of this country as well as its citizens. He observed that since the country was yet to produce its own vehicles, it was counterproductive to begin implementation of the new auto policy targeted at discouraging importation of used vehicles into…

…Calls for market for second hand goods     The President, Shippers Association of Lagos Rev. Jonathan Nicol has lauded the Federal Government’s efforts over the arrival of jumbo vessels at the Onne Port in Rivers.   Nicol, who was delighted at such feat said that the calling of the West African Maximum (WAFMAX) vessels at Onne port would boost the turn-around time of cargoes.   Nicol disclosed that the capacity of the ship was 4500 Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit (TEU), adding that this was a big success for the President GoodLuck Jonathan administration.   He said that if the…

There was apprehension on Monday along the Nembe-Brass waterways in Bayelsa State as Sea pirates attacked and dispossess the occupants of a passenger boat. The pirates it was gathered, rode on a speedboat, shooting sporadically into the air  forcing  the boat to stop sailing. The gunmen who were said to have raided the boat at Obama Rice Farm, an area located between Brass and Nembe and dispossessed passengers of their valuables thereby causing panic among other boats operators and traders as they temporarily stopped movement of goods and passengers along the waterways. A security source, who would not want his…

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has reassured its commitment to  the welfare of staff, even as it said that it was set to disburse outstanding payments it owed tally clerks and on-board security men currently engaged by the agency. Managing Director of NPA, Mallam Habib Abdullahi gave this indication recently at the National Executive Meeting of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), which held in Lagos. Abdullahi assured the union that payment of outstanding allowances of tally clerks and on-board security men is already ongoing, even as he revealed that the review of financial guides to their conditions of…

As the debate on what is responsible for non compliance to trade procedures rages on, the National President, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Chief Eugene Nweke, has  come out to make case for the Freight Forwarders and agents who he said were often neglected by the government and its agencies in the chain of trade in the ports. Speaking in his paper presentation during the recently concluded 2nd Global trade Compliance Summit organized by the Multimix Academy in Lagos said that freight forwarders cannot help but cut corners in carrying out cargo clearance procedures at the nation’s…

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) recently joined the call on the federal government to rescind its decision on the new automotive policy which it has since started implementing through the Nigeria Customs Service. The President General of the Union, Comrade Tony Nted who was speaking in an interview with journalists in Lagos said that it would not allow the sudden implementation of the new tariff on imported vehicles by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to see the light of the day. Recall that the duty rate of thirty-five percent without the levy component was introduced by the Nigeria…

The federal government, its agencies and the freight forwarders operating in the Maritime industry had been admonished to embrace mediation as  a better option opened for them  to resolve the on-going dispute over the new tariff on imported vehicles in Nigeria.  A Maritime Lawyer, Barr. Valentino Buoro who made this call in Lagos Wednesday said that both the federal government and the freight forwarding industry are losing huge sums of revenue as a result of the recent disagreements between the two parties over the implementation of the new auto policy which have consequently led to the disruption of import activities…

Following the suspension of the protests and the strike action that greeted the partial implementation of the new automotive policy by the Nigeria Customs Service, embarked upon by the clearing  agents at the PTML command, activities at the command has returned to normal. Freight forwarders and agents had a fortnight ago downed tools at the command to register their displeasure over what they called the premature implementation f the new policy that was meant to commence on July 1, 2014. Recall that the Nigeria Customs Service on Monday, the 5th day of May, 2014 commenced the implementation of thirty-five percent…