Tincan Customs, freight forwarders disagree over collapse of ‘ one- stop- shop initiative’

BARELY two years after the “one- stop- shop initiative” was conceived by the Tincan Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service ( NCS), freight forwarders and customs agents have blamed the Command for the failure to sustain the trade facilitation platform.

The platform, which was introduced by the Controller in charge of Tin Can Island Port Command, Comptroller MBA Musa, was aimed at facilitating trade and discouraging multiple alerts for easy clearance of cargo, came under criticism for lack of sustainability.

Freight forwarders and customs brokers operating at the Command, described the platform as dead- on- arrival, adding that issues of multiple alerts still persist.

The President, Advocacy for Maritime Development Association of Nigeria, Segun Alabi, said the initiative was a stillborn, noting that it did not achieve its objective right from the onset.

According to him, most of the units under the Command like the valuation, Customs Processing Centre ( CPC), Customs Intelligence Unit ( CIU), Customs Area Controller ( CAC), Monitoring and Compliance team give out alerts to cargoes awaiting clearance at the port.

Alabi said: “It has died even before the man said it. Don’t let us deceive ourselves. You see one- stop- shop means fast track and easy service, but are we getting that? Let them show us the template, the formality, the working process of the one- stopshop. It still boils down to the way things are done.

“The one- stop- shop does not mean that you will not answer a query, you will answer multiple queries. So, what is one- stop- shop?” he queried.

A former Chairman, Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria ( AREFFN), Jude Ige, maintained that the introduction of the one- stop- shop initiative failed to address issues bothering on trade facilitation, adding that money expended on innovation was a waste of government’s scarce resources.