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‘Unease’ of Doing Business: ANLCA Urges President Tinubu to Intervene on Epileptic Customs Servers
L-R: National Secretary of ANLCA, Deacon Olumide Fakanlu, ANLCA Vice President, Prince Segun Oduntan, Western Zone Coordinator, Femi Anifowose and Senior Special Assistant to ANLCA President on Protocol, Rilwan Amuni during a press interaction at Tin Can Port recently
By DAPO OLAWUNI
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has sent a Save-Our-Soul message to President Bola Tinubu over unease of doing business at Nigerian ports, ocassioned by the epileptic nature of the Nigeria Customs Service Servers, being handled by its service provider; Messers WebFontaine.
National Vice President of ANLCA, Prince Segun Oduntan in a chat with our correspondent lamented that the recurring failure of the server is causing payment of huge demurrages by importers and their clearing agents.
Prince Oduntan called on President Tinubu to intervene into the plight of port users by instructing the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, to tackle the challenges head-on.
“Our frustration is directed at the President of the Federal Republic, its just a Save-Our-Soul, the president should impress on the Minister of Finance to intervene in the way WebFontaine is handling us in this country, it is causing a lot of damage.
“The WebFontaine have been terminated from managing Customs server but they don’t want to withdraw totally.
“This has been causing a lot of delays, demurrages and intrigues among the trading public, coupled with the increase in the dollar exchange rate.
“The Minister of Finance should intervene and allow WebFontaine carryout total handing over, the server failure issues is between the Ministry of Finance and WebFontaine and this is affecting the Nigeria Customs Service
“The Customs portal has not been working, it has been dragging for the past three weeks. For three days, you might not be able to carryout cargo assessment in some commands
“The importers and agents are the ones suffering all the demurrages.
The server is not down, it is working, but it is very slow, and it sometimes comes and goes” he lamented
Prince Oduntan urged the federal government to set up a committee to look into what is causing the delays and epileptic Customs portal. He said the government should bring in IT experts and resource persons, let them look into this issue as a matter of urgency.
Speaking on the latest increase in Customs dollar exchange rate, the ANLCA number two man urged federal government to cushion the effect on the masses.
“This is not the fault of Customs, it is affecting everybody, the Customs officers too would have to buy goods at the same market.
“There is need for us as an association to have a proper engagement with the CBN, this is not a Customs thing, even if Customs has to be there, they would be an observer, they only carryout Customs policies, they only wake up to find it on their system” he said
Attention President BAT , CBN GOV , CGC ,
WE NEED A STABLE ECONOMY TO EFFECT THE BLUE ECONOMY, CURRENTLY INVESTORS ARE LEAVING THE COUNTRY, ALREADY SHUT DOWN THEIR FACTORY, AND SELLING OFF THEIR PROPERTIES. THE MASSES ARE CRYING DUE TO THE HARDSHIP OF ON THE ECONOMY.
KINDLY LOOK IN THIS MR PRESIDENT AND ALL OUR REPS AND SENATORS.
The WebFontaine are not interested in fostering business environment and growing the economy, they are interested in lining their pockets.