The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has beckoned on the Nigerian Customs and other port regulatory agencies to sit up and find lasting solutions to the issues that have seen most of the nation’s cargo diverted to neighbouring countries.
The Association made this call in a press release last week, where it lamented that corruption shall continue endlessly in Nigeria as long as port users refuse to be compliant to regulations and government agencies refuse to enforce the laws.
“In order to arrest the present shameful act with the advent of the change mantra of the present government, it is the opinion of NAGAFF that except we enforce the laws and regulations governing our international trade, the idea of change shall remain a mirage” the report stated.
NAGAFF urged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Shippers’ Council, among others to brace up to the onus of restoring the ongoing cargo diversion and loss of revenue due to the government.
The Association stressed that it was the duty of these agencies to enforce approved regulations governing international trade in the nation’s entry points but lamented that “they choose to connive with the trading public to cheat the government on revenue, quality assurances and standardization of products. This is an act of disloyalty to the Government by its operatives and connivance is an act of criminality against the state”
“At the moment, issues of illegal charges have been the major problem in our ports thus defeating the essence of ports concessioning. We regret to state that NCS and NPA have failed to apply the law of Section 31 of CEMA 2004 in favour of progressive storage charge of APMT and others.
The Association noted that it is high time Mr. President calls to order every party involved in the various breaches at our entry points with a view to addressing all matters and save the country from the ongoing cargo diversion and loss of revenue due to the government.
