NPA’s Electronic Call-up System Destined To Fail, Freight Forwarders Declare

By DAPO OLAWUNI

Freight forwarders have passed a vote of no confidence on the Electronic Call-Up System for trucks which is billed to commence January 2021 by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) saying that those coming to sparehead the project are “ignorant” of Nigerian ports operations system.

DAILY TREND NEWS gathered that the NPA management led by Hadiza Bala Usman had late 2020 concessioned the electronic call-up system project to a company; Truck Transit Park (TTP) Limited.
The agency also announced that it has acquired acres of land around Orile Lagos state, to be used as holding bay for trucks.

Sources who spoke with our correspondent alleged that NPA is yet to carry out mass sensitisation of port users; the freight forwarders, the truck owners and drivers on the workability of the call-up system.

Speaking with journalists in Lagos yesterday, Secretary of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Prince Taiye Oyeniyi said that NPA electronic call up system would not work because the port system has been bastardised with corruption.

He advocated that NPA officials who have gotten better knowledge of port operations should be allowed to drive the project, rather than concessioning it out to private firms.

He lamented that this is 5th time the government would be introducing such idea at the port and all have failed. He also sighted an example of the manual call up system operated at the Lillypond Terminal Ijora and how the process was hijacked into a money making venture for some few persons.

“The call up system would not work, the Nigerian system has bastardised truck call up systems at the port, and I would say it openly”

“What is call up system? I have my Trailer at Ijora and it has stayed for three weeks, some other persons would bring their trucks and it would passed immediately into the port”

“The government has changed call up systems more than five times and all have failed ”

“The Nigerian Ports Authority officials should be allowed to manage the system because they are owners of the port, the people they are bringing to manage the call up system now are ignorant”

“When you are ignorant of an existing law, there is no way you can achieve anything”

“When Ijora was designed as the holding bay, some trucks stayed there for three months, while others must have gone into the port and load cargoes three times over, meanwhile it is on the same road”

“The element of corruption must be eradicated in whatever we are doing”

“The NPA should reorganise the call up system so that the freight forwarders would be included, they know where the shoe is pinching, the Shippers Council, the Manufacturer Association of Nigeria (MAN) AMARTO” he said

The ANLCA Board Secretary while reacting to the recently announcement by the Nigeria Customs Service that it surpassed its revenue target for year 2020, stated that licensed customs agents do not receive the necessary accolades in connection with the revenue target that was surpassed.

“If the customs is saying that they surpassed their target, under what atmosphere? Is it normal atmosphere with the rule of law, without extortion? The fact remains that everything in the customs service is in disarray and we are ready to take it up one after the other. The General principles of valuation is not being followed by the customs”

Oyeniyi said that the organogram of the customs service should be restructured, while the injustice in promotion of officers should be addressed by the Comptroller General of Customs, Col Hameed Ali