I am in support of it because most government agencies not officially assigned to be at the seaports are currently unofficially around or having their operatives stationed along port access roads. The best option is for the Federal Government to allow its agencies to officially come back to the port. I believe this will further promote trade facilitation and ease of doing business agenda of the government. Absence of the SON from the ports leads to either substandard imports or double-check of exited goods and the delays associated with checking of suspected containers will be a thing of the past if SON returns to the port.
No I don’t think SON should return to the port if the government is serious about reducing cost and time of doing business at the port. There is nothing they are to do at the port since Customs officers are there already and they are doing their job effectively. I believe SON can do their job online because the world has gone digital, infact thorough job and curbing of standard good is better done online.
Customs alone cannot handle the job at the port because we still see substandard products littered in the country. I think the government should allow SON return to the port because they are critically needed at physically. Let us see more harmonious, inter-agency cooperation and collaborations. The sub-standard products could be stopped if we want to because nobody would want to use his money to buy something that may end up killing him.
The situation of unchecked influx of sub-standard products into Nigeria has remained worrisome and it is leading to the closure of industries, unemployment and collapse of the Nigerian economy. I believe the duty of SON is to verify quality of products at the seaports and major entry points in Nigeria. Apart from the seaports and airports, Nigeria is said to have over 400 land borders excluding several illegal routes which are supposed to be properly manned by law enforcement officials. These porous borders and illegal routes are used by smugglers and importers to bring in all sorts of sub-standard products into the country. Therefore, positioning the right official agents at the seaports remains one of the effective ways to check the menace of sub-standard products. SON is believed to have the required capacities and competencies in terms of facilities and expertise to dictate manipulations and block the entrance of sub-standard products in the Nigeria’s markets right from the ports.
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