NAGAFF disagrees with Osinbajo on allegations against Customs, Police.

Tayo Oladipupo       |
The founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has said the Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo might have  been misled to lay blame on Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and Nigeria Police for failure of ease of doing business.

The Nigeria’s Vice-President and Chairman of the Presidential Environmental Business Enabling Council (PEBEC), had listed the excesses of Nigeria Customs Service and the intrusion of port police as some of the challenges facing the initiative to unbundle clearing process at the ports.

Osinbajo who was represented at the public forum by Mrohn Oboh had observed that some customs officers did not come to office on time for examination of cargoes.

He pointed out that the problem had been with information that some customs officers do not come to office in time.

He said “where examination is supposed to be around 12noon, the exercise does not start till between 1pm and 2pm”.

But in his reaction to the allegations, Aniebonam said that the Vice President might have been misled to make such statement.

He said the terminal operators, shipping companies and government operatives should be blamed for non-compliance instead of customs and police.

 “It appears that vice president Osinbajo is being misled to accuse customs and police of frustrating Ease of doing business at ports wherein most stakeholders , most government operatives , most terminal operators and shipping companies are not compliant to import and export regulations . 

“Ease of doing business at the ports should not mean making new laws but to enforce compliance and removal of all human element barriers against trade across international frontiers of a state.

“It is also targeted towards simplification of processes and procedures for seamless ports operations. 

He called on the Vice president to engage stakeholders through enlightenment, and the expectation of the government to bring about increased productivity in the ports.

“What Mr Vice President should do is to increase stakeholders’ engagement through education and enlightenment, the expectations of the government to bring about increased productivity in our ports”, he stated.

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