Shortly after a ceremony to celebrate the berthing of ‘MV Great Lagos’ largest dual purpose (container and RoRo) ship in in PTML, Saidu Abba Yusuf, the Customs Area Controller of PTML Command talked about his strategy to sustain three hours cargo clearance and seamless operation without congestion
Q:We just celebrated the berthing of MV Great Lagos.What is the significance of today’s berthing at PTML of Customs Operations?
I congratate the Grimaldi Group and PTML.This is indeed a very great feat not for them alone, it is also a great feat to Nigeria Customs Service, PTML Command, and by extension a great feat to our dear country.
The arrival of MV Great Lagos is a great thing for us .It means an opening for more Cargoes for PTML.It also means more revenues for Nigeria Customs Service as it is.Over the period, we have been faced with downturn in cargo throughput but with the arrival of MV Great Lagos, our hopes are very high.
Judging from the capacity as we’ve seen, in terms of the RoRo and the container from what we have been told, it has the capacity to bring in about 2,500 vehicles and 2000 containers which is a very great thing for us.As for us in PTML, we are going to be up and doing.We are ready and our officers are ready to take charge, especially of the high volume of cargoes we will be expecting from this ship.
Q:Talking about high volume of Cargo and more revenue for Nigeria Customs Service, as at November ending can you give us a comparative view of this year’s revenue connection compared to last year’s own?
If we can recall, during the visit of Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi MFR , when he visited us, some couple of months ago, we gave him our words.We said that whatever it takes to put in the best we can, we are going to do it.
We have been very fortunate, comparatively the revenue we have been able to generate from month to month has really improved.It has increased to a great extent.Up to November this year, we have been able to surpass what we collected correspondingly against last year.
We have been able to surpass the revenue we generated by 9.8 percent.By this time last year, we had about roughly N213.4 billion but now, in 2023, up to November, we have been able to generate about N234.3 billion which is a significant increase of about 9.8 percent and we are hoping that by December, we will perform better because we will be expecting more Cargoes.Before the year runs out, hopefully we should be able to meet our target.
Q:During the celebration, we heard that there is zero congestion in PTML and this is evident. How did you achieve this?
In the spirit of trade facilitation and the structure we have put on ground in PTML, it is very easy gor compliant traders .Since my arrival, I have been saying a lot of things about the advantages of being compliant.
Once you are compliant, you won’t experience any delay in cargo clearance.When you declare exactly what you have, and when you pay exactly what you are supposed to pay as your duties we won’t delay you.The fastest we have done so far in terms of time release is 3 hours.
When a consignee or declarant declares exactly what he has, examination is quickly conducted and release is quickly done. Within 3 hours, your cargoes are out.We don’t have any cause to hold on to any cargo as long as the compliance level is 100 percent.
Immediately payments are done, we go for examination and release is done, so you won’t see any cargo lying around because definitely, the owners, if there is no intervention, we automatically release them without wasting time.That is the essence and I encourage all intending traders and port users that PTML is very friendly in terms of time release, dedication on the part of the officers.
Between 9′ O clock, and 4pm examinations are carried out in line with Federal Government directives on ease of doing business.
We are intensifying our efforts with other sister agencies for joint examination instead of one agency going, then the other one coming.We go on examination jointly and we ensure that once it is conducted,it will be concluded and all activities surrounding the examination is done and release is effected.We are working on that and we are trying to improve on that as well.
Q:As the year gradually comes to an end, what is your advice to port users, terminal operators as well as stakeholders?
The most important thing as I always say is compliance and transparency.Transparency is the keyword.When a trader, stakeholder, declarant is transparent as I have always said, transparency is part of the pillars of trade facilitation.
When you talk about the harmonization of process, standardization of process, simplification of process, all these entails that there must be transparency.Once there is transparency, it makes our job very easy and the issue of interventions , infractions will be limited and the time release will be so fast.
The moment the time release is fast, it attracts more businesses in line with WCO tenets which all custom administration are trying to key into.I must sincerely commend the efforts of Comptroller General of Customs since he came on board.We gave him our words that we are going to put in the best we can to assure that things work smoothly.
We will also ensure that the revenues increase and we have been able to keep to that.With the enabling environment, we have been able to provide within the period he took over.I think his leadership has been able to give us some very great sense of direction and officers are really dedicated.We shall see results subsequently.
