Seven years ago Web Fontaine was contracted by the Federal Government, to carry out a modernisation exercise of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). Managing Director of Web Fontaine, Mr. Muktar Ahmed in this interview with Godwin Oritse, said that the modernisation project has placed the Customs Service on a better stead for more efficient performance with regard to the issue of cargo delivery.

Excerpts

How has it been since you took over the modernisation project of the Nigeria Customs Service?

Web Fontaine was contracted to do amongst other things, provide the information technology platform especially for the provision of the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA), with a view to have the running of the Destination Inspection (D/I), so as to have a seamless operation of both the modernisation and the D/I working side by side as they were contracted out at the same time.

There are about seven mandates and in the course of modernisation process, we realised that we had eighth one.

There is the provision of power, there is the provision of hard and soft wares, renovation of customs offices, training of Customs officers and of course the eight one which we realised was the issue of having a help desk or a call centre because the telecom infrastructure had expanded so much that you need a help desk to continue to run the system.

So far, I would say that the government took the right decision as at that time, because, now you can see that things have changed for the better in the Customs service and of-course the trading community without whose support none of these four companies would have gone anywhere.

To summarise it all, I think we have done very well and I also think that, the kudos should go to all not only Web-Fontaine.

There has been this issue of consistent system breakdown, and operators in the industry, particularly Customs agents, have accused Web-Fontaine of sabotaging the system to remain relevant, how would you react to this?

Well my reaction to this is that the issue of telecommunication anywhere in the world is a two way thing, especially for the Customs system that we have. Two-way thing in the sense that we are responsible up to the point of providing a point of presence where other service providers like importers or whoever that wants to talk with the Customs will now inter-face with the system.

If you have that available in the Customs, it is up to the other third  party to provide their own system or means of communication of-course, we as technical adviser to the Customs, we provide the specification of equipment we provide for the Customs,  so the breakdown could be from any point.

I am not saying that the system is perfect, but for somebody to sit down and say that there is constant system breakdown and that Web Fontaine is responsible, is totally not true.

It is possible that we have system breakdown but do not put the blame this solely on one agency or organisation, it could be from anywhere.

I can definitely say that Web-Fontaine is not out to sabotage anything, if we were out to sabotage anything, we would not have achieved the progress we have recorded so far.

It is just that in the course of business, things happen by accident, so the breakdown is definitely not deliberate.

First of all I am a Nigerian before I became the Managing Director of Web Fontaine, so why would I want to sabotage my country?

You talked about Government efforts in trying to computerize the Nigerian oil export, how far have you gone with this project?

What I mentioned was that we have seen the impact, positive impact that we have with the issue of imports and I do not think that we still have agents and importers doing business in the port using the manual process, everything is now done electronically.

From the point your manifest is submitted up to the point that RAR is issued, form ‘M’ is electronic, payment is electronic, releasing is electronic. So from end to end of the import transaction has been automated, so we are advising government to go ahead to do the same thing with export and the country will benefit from it.

I am happy that we are talking with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and of course with the Nigeria Customs Service to see the possibility of automating some of these forms.

If that comes to pass, then of course export will be automated, because if you automate any of the forms used for export it means that by extension, whoever is in the export chain, will have to be Information Technology (IT) compliant for you to do export in Nigeria.

How receptive is Government to this project?

We have passed our advice and I am happy to say that government is looking at it and I am hopeful that it will be given a favourable consideration, but we have made our proposal to government.

How supportive was the Customs management in the cause of the modernization project?

The management of the Nigeria Customs has been very supportive of the project I must say.

The Comptroller – General of Customs showed quality leadership and even provided direction in some cases and directed his officers to ensure that everything was made available for Web Fontaine.

You also talked about 15 agencies that are currently connected to the Customs system, who are these agencies and how have their connection helped in quick cargo delivery?

I cannot give you the list right now because I do not have with me, but I can send it to you later.

When the contract was signed, the four main agencies that were targeted were the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS). But in the course of the project, we now realised that in international trade, everything is going towards a single window direction and so Web Fontaine sold the vision to the government that other agencies can come on board.