By Godwin ORITSE
NATIONAL President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Alhaji Shittu Olayiwola has said that the eviction of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria and other security agencies from the nation’s seaports will reduce the cost of clearance of cargo by as much as 40 percent.

In an exclusive chat with Vanguard Shittu stated the affected agencies before their eviction had constituted check points in the ports.

He accused SON and other agencies of being more interested in the so called levies, fees and penalties which they tagged administrative charges because these monies are auditable.

He said “SON claims to know the importers of fake and sub-standard products let them go after these unscrupulous importers.

“We are talking about trade facilitation must Nigeria continue to remain like this that is my worry,, we want the wrought to stop so as to help this country

“You have what is called single window project being practiced by the Customs NICIS. By the time you go to the Trader Data Input (TDI), the information you get from your importer v ia the internet if the importer is compliant, automatically your cargo can go to green.

“Now the number of times your importer brings in cargoes and has been declaring genuinely determines the level of confidence the system has in the importer but majority of Nigerian importers are not complaint and I can tell you that the importers I work for are compliant some of them have been with us for 15 years and once their cargoes come, they go through green.

“Green means that you b do not have to do any examination but you are given immediate release .

“But Customs will not sign your exit until you have gone to all these agencies to sign that they are satisfied with your examination

“Meanwhile, there is this one stop shop that was brought by Customs that any container that is meant for examination must have all the agencies in attendance.

“And when they come, they send the lowly junior staff to go and give them report in their offices.

The importer will now in turn go to their office to negotiate the release of their cargoes before they sign his exit

“Now the representatives of the affected agencies ensure that as long as your cargo remains in inside the port, you are under pressure to negotiate the release of your cargo.

And as long as your cargo remain in the port, you will e intimidated to part with money so that you can go.

“Otherwise, while you are waiting demur rage is running on the trailer, demurrage is running on the container demurrage is running on the terminal rent so they know you cannot afford to waste time so you must ‘settle’

“Let SON and others do their work outside the port, the port is suppose to be a transit area,it is not suppose to be storage area, it is not suppose to be a check point but what we are seeing are check points in the ports