The constant breakdown of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) server operated on the platform of Web Fontain has been a major cause of concern not only for customs agents operating at the nation’s seaports but also for their counterparts operating at the airport.
Chairman, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Airport Chapter, Segun Musa, told SHIPS & PORTS DAILY that the customs system failure has become a regular occurrence at the airport noting that even airline operators could not electronically transmit their manifest as a result of the situation.
He said already, the tarmacs at the airport are congested with cargoes due to delays occasioned by the constant server failure.
Musa called for an alternative approach to data capture and cargo clearance at the ports.
He said the search for an alternative has become imperative especially with the surge in the level of importation of goods.
“The internet facility from ASYCUDA is often down. Sometimes for three, four days, the server will be down and you can’t process any document. It is as good as the economy within the clearance sector is on the standstill. This has been a major problem within the aviation sector. There should be another means of facilitating trade apart from the way we have been doing it. There should be a manual approach to it,” he said.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.