FG Urged to Probe Mismanagement of Scanners at Ports
The National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) has called on the federal government to constitute a committee to probe the breakdown of Scanners at the ports and the need to evaluate them for possible repairs.
In a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari and signed by its national president, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, the group said the present state of the scanning equipment at the ports was a result of total neglect by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) personnel who supervised the transfer of the equipment from the providers.
He said the acquisition of the scanners was contracted under the Destination Inspection Scheme between the Federal Government of Nigeria and some service providers. The service providers include: Cotecna, SGS and Global Scan, who were contracted on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis, for a period of seven years from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2012, which was finally extended for one year by the federal government.
“The agreement for the provision, installation, operation and management of x-ray scanning equipment and software for examination of goods between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Cotecna Inspection Limited, Societe general de surveillance (SGS) and Global ScanSystems Limited is as contained in Articles 4 to 4.3 which provides for ownership of equipment during the duration of the contract and the transfer to federal government, ”he said.
He added: “As draft committee chairman of the Reconstituted Presidential Task Force on the Reform of Nigeria Customs Service (RPTFCR) in 2010 and also member of the Presidential Committee of Destination Inspection (DI), in 1999/2006, I am obligated to advise on the need to critically look at the breakdown scanners in the port for possible repairs.
“We hereby request for expert auditing of the scanners in the Ports with some selected member of the Reconstituted Presidential Task force who understand the reform process to evaluate the state of the Scanners for it to be put back in operation.”
He said the payment for the scanning equipment is covered under Articles 12.1, which allows the service providers to receive in United States dollars (USD) of 0.5 per cent ad valorem calculated on the assessed FOB value of all goods entering Nigeria through seaports, airport and land borders.
The federal government has urged Nigerians to take advantage of the economic challenges facing the country to embrace small and medium scales enterprises (SMES) as part of measures to diversify the nation’s economic.
The Director and Head, Policy, Advocacy and Coordination, Small and Medium Enterprises Development of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Ewans Monday gave the charge in Abuja while speaking at a one day seminar on promo- tion of small and medium scale enterprises organised by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Alumni Association of Nigeria (JAAN).
He stated that, “the time has come for Nigerians to take action and decisions on how to earn income on their own without having to wait for government noting that there many small and medium scale business opportunities in the country that can be tapped into by the ordinary Nigerian.”
Monday said areas such as poultry production, livestock, bee keeping and processing, soya been processing, rice production among other areas as business potentials that anyone with little capital and entrepreneurial skills can venture into.
The first vice president of JAAN, Mr. Emmanuel Okonko Nden, said the federal government must lay the foundation for the proper take off of SMEs in the country by providing infrastructure, particularly in the area of power which has shut out many small scale businesses.
According to him, “The thing that we ought to do and we are not doing is laying the structure, the government must tackle the energy problem, for instance, we could go solar, we could go wind. Diversifying the economy is a good route we are taking and if we have this structure on ground we will get there.”
He admitted that government and other stakeholders have been doing much of talking without taking action, but however expressed optimism that the time has come to convert those talks into action.
Nden stressed: “What I think is lacking in us is this oil blessing from the nature, in the early 80s we had a situation, as soon after that the oil filled up again. The moment oil went to sleep, we joined in the sleep and start wishing this is what we should and the moment the oil picked up again, we forget.”
Earlier, the Chief Country Representative of JICA, Nakamura Hirotaka said JICA has been promoting small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria since 2007 during which he said the association introduced one village one product promotion.