Fast-tracking cargo clearance through effective destination inspection scheme

Last week, the Federal Government through the minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, directed the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to fully take over the destination inspection (DI) process formerly handled by the service providers over the past seven years. The implication of this is that NCS will be in charge of import and export procedures in Nigerian seaports, airports and land borders.

Customs has demonstrated some measure of readiness to assume this important responsibility. This can be seen in the number of trainings that officers of the service have undergone over the years in preparation for this day.

NCS will be charged with managing all areas of the inspection processes. These include processing of the electronic Form M; issuance of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) to replace the Risk Assessment Report (RAR); control of scanning equipment and operations in all the scanning sites in Nigeria; and deployment of risk management system developed by Customs in consultation with partner agencies.

To successfully achieve this, NCS management introduced PAAR regime to replace RAR that was formerly issued by the service providers and a trade information portal known as ‘Nigerian Trade Hub’ that puts information at the disposal of all actors in the trade chain. The service also installed a state-of-the-art ruling centre in its Abuja office so as to be able to issue PAAR to importers and exporters within hours.

During a weeklong sensitisation programme in Lagos aimed at educating importers and clearing agents on the newly introduced PAAR, Dikko Inde Abdullahi, comptroller-general of Customs, announced in a town hall meeting held with traders that Customs issued the first PAAR in less than 24 hours of taking over the destination inspection scheme.

According to the updates from the Customs Ruling Centre in Abuja, the name of the first PAAR’s importer was given as Waaz Ultimate Global Link Limited of #10 Herbert Macaulay Street, Yaba Lagos. The document covers an importation of a 40-foot container of children’s educational toys and glass cup procured from Hong Kong China, with CN20130017589/001.

Apart from the above, the Federal Government also introduced a new importation guideline geared at enabling Customs to achieve the targets of the PAAR in the face of the new destination inspection regime.

BusinessDay findings have revealed that the takeover of DI regime by Customs, if properly handled, would lead to increased revenue collection for government by blocking revenue loss from the 1 percent of imports that runs into billions of naira which Federal Government gives to service providers, as well enhance trade facilitation and better collaboration with other agencies of government to boost national security.

The CG of Customs said the service inherited obsolete and outdated scanning machines from service providers and has therefore finalised the process of deploying 50 new ones to the nation’s seaports, airports and land borders to effectively manage the implementation of the new import regime.

“The service, which inherited 21 scanners, has drawn five years plan that will enable it to acquire and supply 50 highly advanced scanners that will meet the requirement of time in the next five years,” he said.

The Customs boss, however, appealed to the importers and clearing agents to cooperate with the service to allow for effective implementation of the destination inspection process, especially in the area of complying with the trade regulations.

“As we take over these processes, we will anticipate some hiccups that may arise from the sheer volumes of declarations at the beginning before we can fully stabilise. However, the service has taken measures to address the risks and manage them to the advantage of our stakeholders,” he explained.

He further pleaded with Nigerians to bear with whatever hiccups the system might throw up at the initial stage, adding: “We have established functional help desks in Customs headquarters and all the area commands to handle cases of complaints that may arise at any level of the clearance process.”

Emmanuel Nwabunwanne, a Lagos-based importer, asked: “Of what significance is issuing a PAAR to me within six hours if it does not help me to clear my goods within two to five days as is done in the neighbouring West African ports?”

Beyond these, Customs needs to strengthen its efforts and ensure that the number of days it takes an importer to clear his or her goods is reduced from the current 21 days to a maximum of 48 hours. This is because the issue of longer dwell time of cargo is the major reason Nigerian ports have become user-unfriendly.

Industry stakeholders believe that handing over destination inspection scheme to Nigerian Customs, though very important to the nation’s economy, is not the solution to the problems importers face at the ports.

“Issuing a PAAR document within six hours rather than a minimum of five days that it used to take service providers to issue RAR would not have any impact on cargo clearance if Customs does not cut down on its excessive bureaucracy, duplication of offices and excessive physical examination of goods and reduce the long clearing procedure that allows for a particular document to pass through over 79 signatories before the cargo would be released,” one of the stakeholders said.

Destination inspection, according to them, may contribute heavily to reducing the problem of long cargo dwell time in the ports if properly handled by Customs.

To achieve this, NCS and other government agencies in the ports need to operate on 24-hour basis just as the terminal operators are doing currently. This would go a long way in reducing the delay importers experience while clearing cargo in the ports.

Similarly, there is also a need for Customs, other agencies involved in cargo clearance, as well as importers and clearing agents to change the culture of resuming late for work. The problem of poor transportation infrastructure in the ports needs to be addressed by all involved so as to ensure effective movement of cargo in and out of the ports. In doing this, port access roads need to be made accessible and truck holding-bays need to be constructed for truckers to use as a transit park. If this is achieved, it would help to remove the alarming traffic congestion created by trucks that queue and park indiscriminately on the access roads.