The assurance came against the backdrop of increasing concerns over the state of scanning equipment particularly at the Apapa port which has continually slowed down the pace of goods assessment and clearance by customs officers.
The development is particularly worrisome given government’s efforts to boost its non oil revenue stream amid the present fiscal challenge occasioned by the fall in global oil price.
A top customs official who spoke under condition of anonymity told 234TODAY yesterday that virtually all the scanners which the service inherited from hitherto service providers including Cotecna, SGS and Global Scan had become obsolete.
In January 2014, as part of the reforms in the service, the NCS completely took over the Destination Inspection Scheme (DIS) from the service providers.
The source said:”Our fixed scanners are bad, so also our mobile scanners. They had to bring the mobile scanner in Calabar to Apapa scanning site and it’s not even in good condition.”
According to him the only mobile scanners being used fluctuate intermittently, leading to frustrations and sometimes resort to manual assessment of goods-with its inherent limitations.
The source further explained that importers and stakeholders were complaining on daily basis as “nobody wants to pay money due to the lackadaisical attitude of another person.”
However, while responding to enquiries from 234TODAY, customs spokesman, Mr. Wale Adeniyi assured that “scanner issues will be addressed soon.”
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