The Nigeria Customs Service Command in Lilypond, Apapa, Lagos says, it has addressed the problems of rejection of Nigeria goods, delays of cargoes and cancellation of contracts due to late arrival of exports from the country.
The Lilypond Comptroller, Customs Area export Command, Mr. Mohammed Babandede says, this led to a revenue generation of $200m in the first quarter of this year between January to March.
He disclosed this when the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Aviacargo roadmap committee paid a visit to the command.
The Customs Comptroller, Lilypond Apapa, Mr. Mohammed Babandede said, on assumption of office in November last year, his mandate was to ensure increased and seamless export of Nigeria goods through the port.
He said, the command swung into action providing offices for all stakeholders for a joint examination and clearance of all cargoes coming in and leaving the ports.
According to him, this had solved the problems of late delivery of export goods to destinations, rejection and cancellation of contracts.
He however noted that, poor packaging and adherence to standards by exporters were major problems they currently grapple with.
“If you package it, ensure that, it conform with the standards. You decided to go and fumigate your cocoa at the back side and ship it, the FAD of that country will carry out test and found out that it has not conform therefore it will be rejected so, we keep on engaging the exporters especially the agents, the freight forwarders”.
Earlier, Coordinator of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN Aviacargo roadmap committee, Mr. Ikechi Uko while stating the purpose of their visit said, the problem was not peculiar to the ports as the Aviation industry was grappling with same.
He said, what they seek is partnership with the customs command on how to deal with these problems, improve the volume of cargo exports from Nigeria by air and make Nigeria the cargo hub in Africa.
“To get Nigeria from number five to number one is not something that can be done overnight we need to find out what others did. Most of our goods are rejected and even when they are not rejected, the packaging is poor, the quality is poor and those that are time dependent arrived when the goods are dried and expired so, part of why the committee was set up is to solve this problem. In setting up the committee we invited the agencies that are all involved in the process”.
Mr. Uko emphasized that, Nigeria is the largest producer of many Agro-products and all hands must be on deck to reduce to the barest the lose of $1bn annually to non-certification of Agri-produce for export by air.