NAGAFF founder, Aniebonam calls for calm amidst problematic B’odogwu portal
NAGAFF founder, Aniebonam calls for calm amidst problematic B'odogwu portal
The leadership of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has called for calm among the freight forwarding community owing to complaints from some quarters that the trade portal has failed to live up to expectation in recent times.
In a statement signed by Dr Aniebonam Boniface Okechukwu,
founder of the foremost freight forwarding group, it is expedient for projects newly commissioned to experience teething problems.
He also advocated that the Nigeria Customs Service should be adequately funded to achieve its objectives of trade facilitation.
The statement read, “The attention of NAGAFF high command have been drawn to the difficulties in getting assessment just on time by the freight forwarders from the Bodogwu portal
“It is to our knowledge about all the efforts the management team of the Nigeria customs service led by the Comptroller General of Customs is making including but not limited to the various area commands through stakeholders engagement
At the moment the Comptroller General of Customs has been moving around the Western and Eastern ports to ensure things are working well together with his officers at the zones
“Just last week the comptroller of apapa port visited NAGAFF secretariat and our sister associations, and it’s on record that the Controller of Apapa, TCIP, PTML and Federal Operations Unit shall be following up the stakeholders to inform, educate and enlighten them and in particular, the DTI operators
“What is certain is that we must go through the initial teething problems and we must equally appreciate the problems the service may be encountering to power the innovation
“I have said severally that there’s the urgent need for Customs administration to be properly and adequately funded to enable them achieve objectives, i strongly advise the government and in particular the national assembly and the executive to leverage the approved percentage of dues entered in the customs act, this shall help customs to achieve objectives of Bodogwu innovation and other administrative requirements
“Nigeria customs service needed to be properly funded, and i must advise at the moment that Nigeria is in the eye of global customs administration, noting that the new responsibility bestowed on the comptroller General of Customs as chairman of world customs organisation is not a tea party . A lot is desirous of Nigeria under the circumstances
“We must set a model for others to emulate, under the circumstances i do call upon the president of Nigeria to take special interest in the funding of Nigeria customs service in accordance with the customs laws and regulations
“It is also important that i remind freight forwarders and shippers that this is the time for high level compliance on import and export regulations, B’ODOGWU INNOVATION may suffer thesame problems like NICIS 2 regime if we do not showcase integrity in our declarations for customs purposes
“And for the customs service, it’s trite to note that laws are made to be obeyed, however i shall advise that a 90days grace period be granted to non compliant traders. This shall enable them to clear off their consignments indefault of import and export guidelines
“It is also important that ncs mgt team and the board can give approval for provisional release of cargo while fine tuning the Bodogwu innovation, we must learn to do things by ourselves at this point in time
“I hereby direct all the freight forwarders of Nigeria under the control and regulations of council for the regulation of freight forwarders of Nigeria– CRFFN to support the Nigeria customs service in their efforts to make things better for us in cargo clearance out of customs ports and borders
“Education in IT application is hereby reemphasised, therefore freight forwarders must take advantage of nagaff academy and or any other educational institutions to earn knowledge and skills in customs matters and ports administration and management in cargo and logistics services.”
