After lawmakers’ threat, Customs to provide scanners at ports

The coordinator of Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service, Modupe Aremu, says the agency will acquire scanners for Lagos and Rivers ports this month.

Ms Aremu disclosed this during a working visit to some commands in Lagos. She visited Apapa, Tin Can Island, and the Port Terminal Multiservices Limited (PTML) commands.

In August, the House of Representatives Committee on Customs threatened to withhold the NCS’ budget over $420 million unused scanners.

The zonal coordinator explained that acquiring and deploying the scanners in Apapa, Tin Can, and Onne ports would help strengthen the fight against smugglers.

“The scanner is a pictorial of everything that is in the container, and that is why the scanner is very important, and the government is making efforts to see it come in,” said Ms Aremu. “With e-customs, we are going to have over 70 scanners deployed to all seaports and airports.”

The zonal customs coordinator commended the Apapa command for generating N87.8 billion in one month and hoped that by December, they would hit N150 billion.

She emphasised the need for proper port examination and commended them for the seizures made.

The committee also gave the customs two weeks to reduce its 18 cargo clearing stages to four to decongest the nation’s ports.

The committee chairman, Leke Abejide (SDC-Kogi), stated that the committee would not work on the Custom’s 2022 budget if provisions were not made to fix scanners in the ports.

Mr Abejide noted that the government had invested over $420 million on the scanners, and the committee would not allow such investment to go down the drain.

After an interactive session with stakeholders, the committee, which resolved on August 31 in Abuja, insisted that the customs comptroller general should appear in person to explain the processes.

Credit: PG