By   Godwin Oritse
THE much -vaunted customs electronic clearance process, which is meant to fast track cargo delivery system at the port, is being systematically frustrated by the large congregation of government agencies and their innumerable toll-collecting points at the ports.

Worried by the calculated damage that is gradually being done to the efforts of government to meet the desired 48-hour cargo clearance at the ports, Mr. Sonniel Ebonyem Onochie, the Public Relations Officer of the Tin Can chapter of  Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), recently raised an alarm on the existence of numerous agencies which he claimed are duplicating cargo clearance procedures coupled with many cash-collection points which he said add cost to doing business, thus making Nigerian ports the most expensive in the West Africa region to transit goods.

Onochie, who was reviewing the activities at the Lagos ports since the Customs reforms programme started, alleged that there are presently nine agencies at the ports who insist on participating in the clearing process, while he also alleged that customs and police have about 11 different toll-collection points which cargoes are subjected to before their exit from the port.

According to the ANLCA chief, apart from from customs and police, other agencies who participate in the examination process at the terminals include NDLEA, SSS, NAFDAC, Plant Quarantine and SON, while goods are made to pass through seven ‘roadblocks’ mounted by customs and four by the police within the port before exiting.

‘These man – made bottlenecks hamper quick cargo clearance at the port and a potent threat to the realization of 48-hour goods delivery system’, Onochie observed.

He claimed that it takes an average of five working days to exit cargo from the ports, a development he said has made the reforms in cargo clearance and delivery process laughable.
‘What bothers me most is that all these agencies who participate in the examination of containers at the terminals still have their representatives at the exit gates where they subject goods to another round of checks, thereby duplicating their own functions and causing delay’, Onochie claimed.

The Chief Executive Officer of Real Passion Nigeria Limited noted with concern that despite the e-clearance system which emphasizes on paperless transaction, cargo delivery at the port is still being boggled down by effusive documentation.

He kicked against the introduction of the controversial Cargo Tracking Note(CTN) which he said has not only added additional financial burden to importers, but also compounded the excessive documentation procedures.
‘With the introduction of CTN levy, there are now about eight different documents one has to attach to a Single Goods Declaration (SGD) form for one container. CTN has actually compounded the effusive documentation process at the ports, Onochie declared.

‘To my mind, the so-called e-clearance system has not really imparted greatly on the cargo clearance procedure except that it has only managed to reduce fraudulent practices such as Machine Outside (M.O) syndrome.
It has not eliminated long process of clearance procedure which it sought to do.’, he further alleged.
It should be recalled that Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, the Comptroller-General of Customs has justified the checkpoints instituted by the customs in the clearing process which he  claimed were meant to checkmate the unscrupulous agents whom he accused of insincerity in their transactions.

In as much as Onochie acknowledged the position of Alhaji Dikko, he believed that was not enough justification to frustrate the objective of e-clearance which is to fast track cargo clearance at the ports.

He advised the customs boss to dismantle these ‘cash-collection points’ to facilitate quick cargo clearance process, adding that the national leadership of the association is presently sensitizing its members on the need to shun anti-trade activities.

In addition, the ANLCA chief wanted the mush-room agencies weeded out by reducing them to five in numbers which shall include Customs, Police, SSS, NDLEA and NAFDAC.

Onochie was also pained by the unabated decaying of port access road network which he noted have gradually turned into death traps for port users.