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The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has expressed concern over inaccuracy and lack of detail in the records of manifest documents of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) with the view of strengthening its working relations with the Council.
According to the Controller General of Customs Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd.) who made this known while on a courtesy visit to the Council, “We seek to see the Executive Secretary and his management for one singular purpose and that is to create a synergy between them and the Customs Service.”
He appealed , “I am also aware that one of your mandate is to regulate the shippers and I held meetings with some of the shipping lines and their representatives and we had issues when we wanted to check the records. We desire to be able to access the records accurately in the course of doing our job, the documents that the Council presented in the manifest most especially come to us with a lot of problems, some have falsifications of documents while others are non detailed description of goods.”
He further stated, “75percent of the revenue we generate in the maritime sector is from Lagos , so it is not a matter of choice, it is a necessity that we must come here and create an avenue for us to set a forum for synergy, friendship and collaboration. So that together we can move this great nation forward.”
He added, “We need to create an understanding, even though we have been working very closely with you, we want to strengthen it further and make it an everyday interaction. We will also be very glad to be of assistance 24 hours on whatever you may need and make our both responsibilities simpler and easier to execute.”
Responding, the Executive Secretary NSC, Barr. Hassan Bello said, “one of the issues that one can easily identify in the industry, is the lack of collaboration among the maritime parastatals or agencies of government and in the port system you cannot but collaborate because the port is a community and it is very crucial that we cooperate with one another so that the industry can move forward.
He explained, “The under achievement of the industry is largely due to uncoordinated acts of the agencies, but with you on board we believe this will change. NSC has always believed in collaboration, we believe in synergy, equilibrium and balance and working relationship between all the interested parties.
He noted, “We know it is a myriad of interest and mandates so you cannot avoid conflicts or overlap, but these conflicts are sometimes, desirable and all you need do is to talk about it together, so that we can streamline these issues, and when this is achieved, there will be coordination. That is what is lacking and I want to believe that this is what you will bring into this industry.
