LAGOS SEPTEMBER 23RD (NEWSRANGERS)-Marine Expert and Managing Director of Chidosky Marine Concept Limited, Nze Chidiogo Okpara, has commended the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for its impressive revenue generation but called for renewed focus on easing processes and improving the capacity of importers and agents.
Okpara who made the observation while addressing journalists at the September edition of the monthly Media Roundtable of the Congress of Maritime Media Practitioners (CONMMEP), held at Bene Suites, Surulere, Lagos, on Monday noted that Customs’ record-breaking revenue declarations are laudable, but the Service must also prioritise trade facilitation.
He disclosed that Nigeria Customs Service is doing great in revenue generation and even in infrastructure, stressing that they need to look further beyond to see how to make their processes even more stress-free for importers.
“They should pay more attention to making things easier for importers, agents, and other players in the value chain,” Okpara advised, just as he warned that Nigeria risks losing even more business to neighbouring countries unless reforms are made to improve efficiency at the ports.
According to him, “In recent years, Cotonou Port in Benin has become a preferred gateway for many importers. Nigeria is losing revenue to neighbouring ports because importers now prefer to bring goods through them due to cheaper tariffs and less stressful systems. To ship in a standard container into Nigeria today costs about ₦16 million on average, whereas it doesn’t take more than around ₦10 million to do the same through Cotonou Port.”
Okpara who identified poor awareness and low technical knowledge among industry practitioners as a key bottleneck observed that low level of education and awareness among importers and agents makes the business harder than it should be.
“I am a graduate, and I understand when and who to write when there are issues. But many of my colleagues don’t know that. Sometimes they suffer silently, and that creates unnecessary friction with relevant agencies,” he stated, adding that to address the gap port authorities and government agencies should organise annual refresher trainings across zones for importers, agents, and other stakeholders.
“Refresher courses on operations and trade facilitation systems will scale up technical knowledge in the sector. That way, people will know their rights, obligations and the right channels to resolve issues without bottlenecks,” he advised.
Okpara concluded that while Customs’ revenue drive is commendable, sustaining Nigeria’s competitive edge in the region requires reforms that prioritise ease of doing business and human capacity development.
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