The National President, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders ( NAGAFF ) Chief Increase Uche has expressed disappointment over allegations of inefficient services of online portal of Standard Organisation of Nigeria, causing delay in importers cargo delivery.
Chief Uche who made his feelings known while interacting with Journalists in his office at the National headquarters of NAGAFF in Apapa, Lagos, expressed dismay that such allegation could come from the person of Farinto Kayode, the National .Viice President of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents ( ANLCA ).
He disclosed that Farinto had been part of the nationwide sensitization Seminar organised by SON for the past 2 – 3years now , touring all the 6 geopolitical zones, sensitizing both importers and freight forwarders on the need to be compliant, adding that the issue of non compliant or shipper hiding information concerning his shipment has been a serious issue globally hence it reduces the risk inherent in the International trade
On the alleged poor performance on SON’s portal, he said, “If some other person had raised that issue, I wouldn’t have granted that interview. But somebody in the person of Farinto that should even be an Ambassador to SON, Just trying to raise dust, is most unfortunate .I have not even called him, just kept quiet until you people came to inquire my own version. Well it is timely anyway not minding that they tried to do some harm. It’s not going to work out well”.
The NAGAFF National President who is also a member of the Governing Council of CRFFN remarked that SON and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council were the only two Agencies of the government that have been carrying out stakeholders collaborations in the entire logistics chain.
“I will give Shippers Council number one and SON , 2 because they have not been hiding all the processes they keep putting on place, including the upgrading of late last year. We were aware when the issue of delay or importers finding it difficult to upload their information to access downtown because when SON started, they never alerted people that they were upgrading the system, because I know what upgrading means in a platform. I noticed the one of Customs, the moment that process is being embarked upon, there is bound to be teething problem.
“We even resolved it. We even invited one of the senior officers to come and talk to us, there and then, we advised our members on a particular issue that was as that time, causing some kind of friction. When you want to upload their documents, is when you fail to upload the right documents. Once there is falsification. Let me tell you the issue of some of this infringements or non compliance starts with the opening of form ‘M’. SON processes has made it clear that before you embarked on any importation you need to have Product Certificate (PC) which is generated off shore.
“SON office called SONCO both in Asia, Europe and America, you go to the nearest SONCO office, express your intention. They will take it up, go for product testing and confirmation from the Exporters factory, there and then, they will send product certificate /confirmation to Nigeria here. That will enable the importer to now open Form ‘M’. With the racketeering of that PC now, it is now a very big issue because we have discovered that because we are carrying out our investigation here now to see where the actual problem is. Now the PC is now being racketeered to the extent that there are some document processing experts that perfects documents. So when they registers some PC through opening of Form ‘M’, they will keep it for a prospective importer.
“In that wise, some of these importers that wants to bring in cargo but cannot get their cargo or shipper properly tested or authenticated before shipping into Nigeria will now resort to using that platform and once that is done, SON portal will indicate it and there will be no issue in that particular scenerio. You will be having issues if trying to get your processing fast enough.
“Now that SON has now upgraded, I don’t think they have any issue. The only issue you will get is when your documents are not complete, when you try to provide false documents, I’d you try to cut corners, it will be dictated because before now, I was part of the team that investigated SON and Tincan Customs. That was about 4 years ago, that SON will not send unblocking letter on their cargo or the cargo they regulate. But some miscreants will go behind and forge documents and send to Customs and Most times, Customs will honour that letter thinking that the letter came from SON. That was what necessitated SONCAP being included in NICIS 1. Infact , Bash the former Controller then assisted so much during Obaye time that perfected that, and there and then, they were included in NICIS 1 and they are still under NICIS 1 even now that Customs have migrated to NICIS 11”, he pointed out.
He said NAGAFF was not aware that the portal was inefficient but that the fact still remains that there is hardly any system that is full proof, adding there could be a problem when importers fail to obtain there SONCAP, the next thing should be to go for SONCAP Default.
According to him,”that platform was created to simplify clearance process in order not to hinder trade facilitation, yet some unrepentant importers and their agents were the ones still creating the problem.
“Now there are issues that atimes SON would invite people like us to call our attention to what our members are doing. There are containers that are not examined. Then when that container is placed on alert, the owner will approach SON for vacation of that alert. Then as it is discovered that the container was not examined, the vacation would be difficult because, they want to know what is in the container
“Today, we are talking about flooding the market with substandard products and you know what the consequences are.
Last week, there were products that were destroyed, some fake products and counterfeit products. These are hard earned foreign currency. This is how they deplete Nigeria foreign Reserve because that money must have been sourced through the Central Bank Foreign Exchange Bureau, because once that cargo is destroyed, you are destroying Nigeria economy,so the importers are not helping matters. This non conformity to trade rules has led to kinds of depletion of investment. You kind of keep encouraging the so called demurage charges or rent. So once you failed to do the right thing the system will dictate out because it has now allowed you to interact with Customs.
“You make applications, you track it, get responses if there are areas you need to correct and whatever that needs to be produce. There is no right thinking freight forwarder currently that will fail ignorance of what SONCAP procedures are or somebody to just rush to the Press to raise dust. There is more to it and needs to be investigated”, he argued
Chief Increase explained that SON had created platform to avoid human interface adding that the alleged corruption of it’s officers were a mere imagination of some people and a mischief by some freight Forwarders hence there was no evidence of such practice.
“Let them come with evidence of how this money exchanged hands, how those patrolling along the roads take them to the corner and take money from them
Even to stop on the road, the act has given them the power , and right now, SON is not in the Port and that is a serious harm to the economy. If they had been, all these issues would have been resolved inside the port than on the roads.
The NAGAFF national President regretted that some other people had joined force with Farinto, saying that they don’t know what they are doing, as blackmail will not help in the issue rather, doing the right thing.
On why Federal Government had been defiant to NAGAFF’s call for the return of SON at the Port, he said that their exclusion was a very big mistake and called on Federal government to reconsider the ban and recalled them back considering their relevance.
