Seaport: Shareholders lament as N8bn Customs scanners fail physical scanning

…Pharmaceutical products cannot undergo scanning due to limitations – Customs

By Seun Ibiyemi

Despite the federal government’s multi-billion naira investment in scanners at the nation’s seaports, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), operating at the seaports has  abandoned the equipment for 100 per cent physical examination of cargoes. This excludes  products and others that cannot undergo scanning due to limitations of the scanners.

The 100 per cent physical examination as added value  demmurage charges accruing for importers who had thought the introduction of scanners will reduce cost of clearing cargoes out of the nation’s seaports.

However, checks by Nigerian NewsDirect revealed that despite the launch of the scanners at Nigeria’s two busiest ports of Apapa and Tin-Can, cargoes still undergo 100 per cent physical examination at these ports, thereby slowing down cargo clearance chain at the ports.

Recall that the N8billion Scanner project was commissioned recently by the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed. She said that the project would no doubt aid the NCS in the delivery of its mandates, in line with the key priorities of, President Muhammadu Buhari-led Administration targeted at reducing poverty and stimulating favourable macroeconomic conditions for sustained growth and development.

According to her, the scanner has the capacity to detect prohibited import concealed in cargoes, adding that it enables more cargoes to be scanned and bring about the desired efficiency and effectiveness in cargo examination processes.

“The commissioning of these three non-intrusive scanners is in line with efforts to expedite Customs operations and achieve its mandate of ease of doing business, trade facilitation and preventing port congestion.

“These three scanners will help increase revenue for government and improve national security. It will also help enhance the remote audit trail of goods within the port system,” she said.

The Minister stated that the equipment have the capacity to process up to 500 containers in a day, asking for cooperation of key stakeholders.

Meanwhile speaking on the functionality of the scanners, a member of National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Humphrey Okwuosa said cargoes still undergo 100 per cent physical examination at seaports.

According to him, “Customs lacks proper training for the utilisation of the scanners as most results they get to send cargoes form 100 per cent examination are false.”

He said, “Most of the scanners are not properly or adequately operated, their system is yet to be in sync with it. They still go for 100 per cent examination even when there is no infractions and this is wrong.”

However, he said the organisation is yet to have a scanning machine that will give correct report what the items in the containers are.

“The Customs should send more of its officers on training to be able to use the machine rightly and correctly. The officers still do 100 per cent physical examination, because after scanning, they must find one error or the other and most of the time are wrong after getting the scanning report but they use it to delay people for whatever reasons.

“For now, almost all containers are going through physical examination, in fact 80 per cent of containers are going through physical examination, so what’s the essence of a scanner?” he asked.

Also, the Public Relations Officer, African Association of Professional Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (APFFLON), Tin Can Island Port Complex, Clinton Okoro, said the Customs had told clearing agents that cargoes will be scanned from the seaside, even before, getting to the terminal, a situation he said was a ruse.

According to Okoro, 90 per cent of containers are going through 100 percent cargo examination, saying cargoes spend over one week instead of three days before exiting the seaports.

He said, “What we see in the media concerning the scanning machines was a mirage. What they told us when we went for the workshop at Apapa was that the scanners will be installed at the berthing area and all the containers will be scanned. Once they are scanned, there won’t be the hassle of going through rigorous exercise of conducting another examination at the terminal, but as it is now, nothing like that, we still have our normal 100 per cent examination, and of course, you know lot of issues we are facing such as delays.

Meanwhile the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has accused terminal operators and clearing agents of sabotaging the utilisation of the newly installed N8billion scanners at the nation’s seaports.

The Customs Area Controller of TinCan Island Ports, Adekunle Oloyede, who disclosed this to journalists at the Command recently, said terminal operators aided the non-compliance level of scanning cargoes with their refusal to provide trucks to take cargoes to the scanning site.

He said the clearing agents have also not been compliant due to fear of being exposed, thereby making examination and clearing of containers cumbersome.

“At least, 80 per cent of containers should go through the scanner and those that do not have a query should be released immediately. But even the terminal operators find it difficult to provide trucks, which will bring the containers to the scanning. We can’t work in silos,” he said.

Oloyede said that even if there are 80 scanners, the terminal operators are not willing to provide trucks, noting that Customs intend to buy more mobile scanners and place them by the quay to scan containers.

“To make sure compliance level is compulsory, the scanning machines will be at the quayside because they are mobile machines that can move from one point to another. So, if I have three mobile scanners at the quayside, it is enough for Tin Can port. I can put two mobile scanners for the trucks to load.

“The scanners can scan under 30 seconds for a 20ft container and 55 seconds for a 40ft container. So, we can scan 400 in a day with this analysis, even more than that because at that point I am not analysing, I am only scanning for record purposes.”

Speaking on the development, the Spokesman of the Apapa Customs Command, Abubakar Usman explained that some cargoes like pharmaceutical products cannot undergo scanning due to limitations of the scanners, thereby forcing the Service to still inspect such cargoes manually.

According to the Apapa Customs Command Spokesman, “Currently, the scanners deployed at the ports cannot examine pharmaceutical products.

“The scanners cannot tell us if a pharmaceutical product is a malaria drug or an antibiotic or a pain reliever. The scanners cannot say if a drug has expired or even tell us when it will expire.

“The scanners cannot tell us if a pharmaceutical drug is approved by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) or not. This is why when such cargoes come into the ports, we move them for 100 per cent physical examination.

“We are expecting more scanners, and hopefully when more scanners arrive, we will be able to reduce the number of cargoes examined manually. But as of today, pharmaceutical cargoes that arrive the ports goes under manual examination.”

Speaking on the capacity of the scanner, Usman added that aside pharmaceutical cargoes, the scanners are doing very well.

“Aside pharmaceutical cargoes, the scanner is working perfectly well at the ports and on a daily basis, we scan around 100 and 150 containers depending on the numbers of containers positioned for examination by the Terminal operators,” the Apapa Customs Spokesman added.