…As APFFLON calls for termination of its contract***
The Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON), has described the server breakdown of the Nigeria Customs Service as sabotage and called for the termination of the contract with Web Fontane, the Customs service provider.
The call was sequel to the breakdown of the server for over one week which has paralyzed operations at the ports with mounting demurrage.
President of APFFLON, Otunba Frank Ogunojemite, specifically described the server breakdown as sabotage against the freight forwarders and the importers.
Ogunojemite called on the Federal Government to either sack Webb Fontane for gross incompetence and for jeopardizing its policy on Ease of Doing Business ( EDB) or urgently provide an alternative so as to bring to an end this national embarrassment.
He stated that in the overall interest of the nation, the Presidency and the National Assembly should make haste to address this avoidable economic sabotage.
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Ogunojemite lamented that with the total shutdown of Customs server for over a week now, clearing agents and their importers have been trying so hard to stay in business coupled with the 90% increase in Customs duty which has brought the industry and by extension, the national economy to its knees.
According to Ogunojemite, the most worrisome part of it is that shipping companies and terminal operators will still insist on collecting their charges to the last kobo without considering the unfortunate situation.
“It’s high time we called upon the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shipper’s Council (NSC), Chairman, CRFFN and Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to rise up and let’s address this unpalatable situation. And we continue to ask, why is such a case peculiar to Nigeria, why? Stakeholders must come together to address this issue once and for all as we suggest that the Federal Government engages another internet service provider to back up Messrs Webb Fontane to guarantee consistency.
“As a matter of urgency, APFFLON is calling upon the Chairman, Governing Board of Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria -CRFFN, Alhaji Abubakar Tsanni, to meet with relevant stakeholders and deliberate on this issue so as to forestall possible breakdown of law and order in the industry. Enough is enough, we can’t continue folding our hands while Webb Fontane keeps sabotaging our national economy, something urgently needs to be done”, Ogunojemite remarked.
He appealed to all the associations in the freight forwarding profession to officially notify shipping companies and terminal operators of the appalling situation therein appealing for waiver for all members.
“APFFLON is using this opportunity to plead to all shipping companies and terminal owners to look into the current situation and use their good offices to grant waivers to importers and their agents so as to reduce the heavy financial burden being hauled on them due to Customs server breakdown.
“And to professional colleagues and leaders, you are thereby expected to play a professional role by informing your importers about the current situation, they need to be carried along to avoid misinformation from wrong quarters,” he added.
The Public Relations Officer, Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), RORO, Tin Can Island Port, Elder Samuel Chuks Onyekuru also introduced conspiracy theory into it.
According to him, Web Fontane wants to discredit Customs as being incapable of managing the ICT of the Service in order to elongate its contract with the Federal Government.
However, the Public Relations Officer, Customs Zonal Headquarters, Zone ‘A’, Harvey Road, Yaba, Chief Superintendent of Customs Uche Ejiseme, dismissed the suggestions of sabotage on the part of Web Fontane.
He explained that when issues like this arise, people are bound to reason along different lines.
“Naturally, when situation comes up like this, people are bound to express divergent opinions on that. But for us, we cannot actually apportion blames for now, because I do not think we have any basis to now want to apportion blames.
What I know is that anything technology cannot be hundred percent. That is why in some climes of automation, they still create room for manual operations, peradventure this fails. But we are not envisaging any kind of sabotage or incompetence on the part of Customs, because as we speak, the Customs you know as of today, is now different from Customs you know years back”, he said.
Uche, who spoke from Abuja, stated that all the Area Comptrollers whose commands are affected are currently in Abuja,
adding that as soon as the issue arose, the headquarters was alerted and the headquarters quickly alerted the service provider.
“As soon as this matter was reported by the respective Area controllers, it was escalated to HQS here and the HQS has also escalated to the service providers by way of trying to mount pressure on them because the situation has the tendency of seriously affecting us in terms of revenue, and also in terms of the inconveniences being experienced by traders in the value chain”, he said.
According to him what happened is not any deliberate act, it is what happens with technology.
“Once in a while, you experience breakdown. Even though some people might be arguing that at the end of the day, the freight forwarders or their importers are the ones that will bear the brunt. But if you look at it very critically, this revenue is very, very germane to our operations. And we are even more worried than anybody.
” Even yesterday, in Abuja I physically saw when some controllers were also discussing it with the appropriate authorities.”
He assured that the Customs high command is working round the clock to restore and resolve the issue.
“But the assurance is that we are doing everything possible to make sure that these challenges are sorted out by the appropriate persons,” he assured.
CSC Ejiseme informed that the NCS has stepped up in its drive for full automation.
” We have gone so far in the areas of full automation. We are also nearing full automation of our processes,
and procedures, just to make things very easy for people that operate in the value chain. We have gone ahead over some agencies, even some parastatals of government, to make sure that we are in tune with global best practices” he said.
He said customs has been trained for this non-intrusive inspection, stressing that scanning now, is called non-intrusive inspection, because they needed to make a clear difference between scanners that scan paper and also the scanner that scans goods.
“Scanning as word of English is commonly associated with documents. Now they have given it a new name; non-intrusive technology or non-intrusive inspection. We have trained officers both at the Headquarters and command levels, who are eminently qualified to handle any level of technology that might be associated with scanning operations. And this is why I said earlier on that the Customs of now is different from the Customs you used to know.
A lot of these people have been well-trained and certified. And those of them who are certified can also certify persons all over the world, to tell you the level the Service has gone. So, we are not leaving any stone unturned.
” The Comptroller General of Customs and the management are not resting on their oars or leaving any stone unturned, because as I said earlier, anything that touches the nose, directly affects the eyes. So, let’s disabuse our minds of any sabotage.
Customs officers are well-trained. I can assure you authoritatively that the level of training and the level of manpower skills that are being encompassed with regard to automation, and general ICT is unprecedented. We have officers that are well skilled, who can actually compete with the best anywhere in the world in terms of ICT and Technology,” he said.
He said very soon, Customs will roll out full automation.
“And by the time we do that, you will now see the kind of edge I m talking about.
CSC Ejiseme stated that while the Customs sympathizes with the agents, it also notes that the current situation has multiplier or spiral effect, particularly with demurrage as this cannot be overemphasized.
He said that Customs has no control over the terminal operators in terms of demurrage waivers but noted the Service will continue to have discussions with them. “However, you also know that Customs actually has no control over the terminal operators. But we will continue to engage them in discussions. Most of the Area Comptrollers are always having meetings with stakeholders to cross-fertilize ideas on how to ameliorate some of the challenges.
So the terminal operators are aware that challenges of this nature will always come in terms of demurrage and all that. And I remember the last time, Five Star Logistics, for instance, gave a lot of waivers. So we expect that the terminal operators who also understand the situation, that it is not actually the fault of the freight forwarders, need to do something to at least shift some grounds in ameliorating the challenge”, he stated.
