Founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, has said that the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) has not added any value to trade facilitation in Nigeria.
Speaking with SHIPS & PORTS DAILY in his office yesterday, Aniebonam said that despite the loud trumpeting by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) of the efficiency of the new customs clearance regime, PAAR has not made any significant impact on cargo clearance at the nation’s ports.
He said: “For me and NAGAFF, we are not keen about that pre-arrival assessment notice because we are saying that it does not add any value, rather it creates undue hardship. Anybody can blow his or her trumpet but we are not interested in that flying document because it does not add value to international trade in Nigeria. Looking at the issue of risk management it does not make any sense because all these imports without any pre-inspection procedure so even if you want to do profiling in terms of risk management you still have to do physical examination or automated examination especially when there are issues of homogenous (goods).”
Aniebonam said that PAAR does not provide the platform for proper risk management as, given the precarious security situation of the country, cargo still have to be subjected to physical and automated examination.
“If you look at the instances of concealment, false declaration, wrong description of import and all that then you are not in the position to risk manage what you did not see,” he said.
The NAGAFF founder said that the only benefit of the new customs clearing regime is that it has increased revenue for the government and reduced unemployment.
“What we have been able to gain in all this is that from the first of January this year when Customs effectively took responsibility, you would agree with me that this country has made tremendous inroad into generation or reservation of revenue for the government. The one percent CISS normally paid to the service providers are now reverted back to the indigenous operation which will add a lot of value in terms of creating capacity and employment for young Nigerians,” he stated.
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