Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has said that the proposed 48-hour port clearance in Nigeria could only be achieved by the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
The Registrar of the council, Mr Mike Jukwe, said in Abuja on Sunday that the 48-hour port clearance had yet to be achieved.
“The infrastructure itself in the port has improved; I think what we need to improve on really is the system.
“The system in the sense that all over the country people are moving from paper documentation to electronics.
“The new technology improved the time factor in the way we do things; in Singapore for instance, you can clear your cargo within 24 hours no matter the volume.
“The thing that help this is that if you receive the manifest in good time, you perfect your document in good time, you approach the Customs, you pay all the charges.
“By the time the cargo arrives, within a short time you can do it; in Nigeria we have been aiming at 48 hours in cargo clearance processes; we have not achieved it because as at last count we are still about an average of 14 days,” he said.
He, however, took cognisance of the fact that the services in the ports had immensely improved since it was concessioned to the private sector operators.
He pledged the council’s commitment to contribute its quota to the attainment of the proposed 48-hour port clearance as instructed by the government.
“The services have improved because if you go to the ports today, the equipment that are there are much more modern than what you had in the past.
“These equipment help to improve delivery; they help to improve how the cargoes are removed from the vessel, how they are loaded onto the trucks; that has improved a lot that we should go 48 hours.
“We on our own side at the freight forwarding sub-sector, we hope that as soon as we harmonise our charges, we would now give a lot of our energy on that and see how within our sector we can contribute to the 48 hours.
“If all the critical stakeholders can do their bit, we can achieve 48-hour port clearance,” he said.
