The Spanish Government on Saturday told the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to adopt a more flexible and transparent approach when clearing Spanish goods at Nigerian ports.
Chief Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria, Pablo Segrelles, made the call while speaking with journalists in Lagos.
He lamented that Spanish goods were being unduly delayed at Nigerian ports.
The envoy noted that the delays had always resulted in payment of high demurrage for Spanish goods coming into Nigeria.
“The Nigerian Customs should urgently begin to adopt flexibility and transparency in the clearing of Spanish products coming into Nigeria through the ports. Spanish exporters to Nigeria are complaining of delays in the clearing of their products at the ports by the customs.
“We, therefore, think that the Nigerian Customs and other relevant government agencies should do something urgent about this problem. A lot of Spanish companies exporting their products to Nigeria are by the day getting discouraged with the present clearing system,” he said.
Segrelles said that the situation was gradually making Spanish exporters to begin to shift exporting expenses to their Nigerian importers.
The envoy said that the delay in the clearing process would continue to have negative impact on Nigerian importers if something urgent was not done.
He noted that the situation had forced some Nigerian importers to look elsewhere for means of livelihood.
He said that many Spanish investors and companies were interested in doing business in Nigeria but were being discouraged with the problem of implementation of Nigerian government’s policies at the ports.
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