NAGAFF 100% Compliance Team advocate for E-Customs as APMT Debit Notes shows reduction

 

NAGAFF 100% Compliance Team advocate for E-Customs as APMT Debit Notes shows reduction

The complaints of NAGAFF 100% Compliance Team has yielded a good result as AP Moller Terminal has recently effected changes in its debit notes. 

Recently, NAGAFF 100 Compliance team alledgedly accused APMT of dubious , outrageous and multiple charges which slow down the pace of scanning as well as deliberate  imposition  of payment of demurrage on freight forwarders.

 NAGAFF 100% Compliance Team National Coordinator, Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko who reacted to this development thanked the Nigeria Customs Service for their prompt intervention while expressing hope that other issues raised in their letter of compliant would be resolved soon. 

"Investigations showed that there  is   now reduction  in the Debit Notes issued by the Terminal operator, APMT in recent times"

 He called for the increase number of scanning machines in operation to at least 4 or five to meet the volume of declarations, as well as deploying more officers to the scanners while advocating for the E- Customs(Electronic Selection Process), which according to him is the best option in the circumstance. 

It would be recalled the Team in a letter  addressed to the Area Comptroller Nigeria Customs Service , Apapa Command dated 7th October, 2022,  Complained that the deployment of scanners at the Premier Port  Complex , Apapa has suffered set back following sharp practices of the members of staff APM Terminal 

"The 100% Compliance Team National Coordinator  recalled that  APMT officials  had earlier  during a meeting in  Abuja promised to scan up to 800 containers per day but that the operator could hardly scan 50 containers in a day. 

He posited  that the reintroduction of scanners was  as a result of security challenges but lamented that one scanner at the Terminal was not enough to meet the demands at the terminal.

Alhaji  Tanko who also addressed the Press on the issue however warned that  if no significant changes or improvement in the services at the Terminal, they (freight forwarders) would withdraw their services in protest of the poor services, extortion, bribery and deliberate acts to force demurrage on freight forwarders.

Tanko a board member of NAGAFF as well as Governing Council member , Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN,  however in the letter  urged the CAC Apapa Command to  consider  physical examination for some of the declarations to ease the pressure on the Premier Port with the volume of ships and quantum of containers coming  into it. 

Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed at the commissioning disclosed that efforts were being made by the federal government to procure and bring in more scanners to the seaports, land borders  and airports. And that the scanner has the capacity of detecting  prohibited imports concealed in cargos as well as enable  up to 500 cargoes to be scanned in a day.