The Ministry of Finance has granted approval for the commencement of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) pilot scheme in preparation full implementation of the Destination Inspection (DI) regime by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
NCS National Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller Wale Adeniyi, disclosed this yesterday at a stakeholders forum on Seamless Shipping held in Lagos yesterday.
Adeniyi said that the test run of PAAR will commence at a yet to be determined port. He said the test will run parallel to the Risk Assessment Report (RAR) currently operated by the DI service providers to achieve seamless transition and to help minimize challenges that may arise as a result of the handover.
“We just got approval from the minister to do the test run and we are in the process of selecting a particular port where we are going to test run it. During the test run, we are going to run it parallel with what the service providers are doing now so that we minimize the hiccups that will be associated with switching off of RAR and the switching on of PAAR”, Adeniyi said.
The Customs image maker however noted that with the support and collaboration of stakeholders, such challenges would be easy to manage.
“The service providers have been providing DI service in the last seven years and we are taking it over so we should expect that we are going to encounter some hiccups but with your active collaboration, we are very sure that we are going to surmount those challenges”, he stated.
He further noted that one of the components of DI service which is scanning will be piloted at the Tin Can Island Port and thereafter at other ports.
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