Agents Raise Alarm over Multiplication of Customs Tables at Tin Can Port

By ZION Olalekan

Multiplicity of tables and signatures by officers of the Tin Can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service is hindering smooth and effective cargo clearance and delivery at the port, so says the Tin Can Island Chapter of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA)

In a report signed by the Secretary of the Tin Can Chapter of ANLCA, Mr Nzeribe Ebere and obtained by Nigeriamaritime360.com, other challenges confronting the operators at the chapter include multiplication of alerts, according to him, these alerts come in the area of valuation, CPC, Query and Amendment, as well as Controller Alerts.

Ebere lamented that these perennial challenges hinder the ease of doing business at the chapter. He said the Tin Can port has been afflicted with the monster of multiple tables for signing documents by Customs, describing it as a means of extorting port users.

He also disclosed that recently, the Customs Area Controller of Tin Can Command, Mr Musa Baba Abdullahi in his idea of raising target, benchmarked the amount to be paid as customs duties on certain consignments.

“These cargoes were made to pay more for 20-feet TEU and 40-feet TEU respectively. This process makes the ease of doing business not to be effective at the chapter”.

The ANLCA scribe also highlighted other operational challenges at the port to include bad port access road. He lamented that “So many of our members have recorded some losses due to the bad state of the access road leading to the port”

“In most cases, some exited consignments usually fall, thereby making our members to include the loss of their container deposits.

“Also due to the bad access roads, our members have been made to pay high cost of hiring truck to lift their exited cargoes” he lamented.