Colonel Hameed Ali (rtd), the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, has expressed concern that most of the manifest paraded by multinational shipping companies operating in Nigeria are full of irregularities.
Ali made the remark on Thursday in Lagos when he visited Hassan Bello, the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council.
He called for synergy among maritime agencies to ensure that imports and exports were properly documented.
He said as commercial regulator of ports in the country, the Council should collaborate with the Nigeria Customs Service.
Ali said some ship manifests received by the NCS were falsified, while others were incorrect.
He said: “Sometimes we do not get those records we needed to do our jobs from the shippers.
“Some of the manifests, which come to us, have a lot of problems.
“Some of them are falsified, while some are not correct.”
The comptroller-general said the NCS had put in place mechanism to address the irregularities discovered in ship manifests.
In his response, Bello said collaboration among agencies of government was key in moving the maritime sector forward, adding that inter-agency collaboration would add value to nation’s economy.
The executive secretary appealed to the Federal Government to put in place necessary facilities to boost the business of port operators.
NAN.
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