The Nigeria Customs Service has urged the northern business community to embrace the automated overtime cargo clearance system for effective service delivery.
The Controller incharge of Post Clearance Audit Zone B, Mrs. Deborah Adeyemi made the call while delivering a keynote address at a sensitization exercise on the automation of overtime cargo clearance system organized for stakeholders in zone B and D held at the Customs Training College, Goron Dutse, Kano on Friday..
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The program themed “ Driving Transparency, Efficiency and Accountability in Cargo Clearance” brought together consignees, customs brokers, terminal operators and customs officers within the two zones.
“For years, the challenges of congestion, manual paperwork, bottlenecks, abandoned cargo, and lengthy clearance processes have weighed down trade facilitation and slowed economic activity.
“Today, with the automated overtime cargo clearance and disposal system, we are demonstrating that customs can be both a facilitator of trade and guarantor of integrity,” she said.
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She said the introduction of the new system is inline with the vision of the Controller General of Customs to ensure an efficient, transparent, and technology-driven process for managing overtime cargo clearance and disposal.
According to her, the NCS is not only automating a process, but it’s transforming a culture- the culture of delay, opacity, and congestion which is being replaced with a culture of efficiency, transparency and accountability
Adeyemi said the advantages of the new system are numerous including transparency, accountability, simplicity and efficiency as stakeholders can now apply, track, and receive approvals online, without unnecessary physical contact.
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“All documents, from applications to disposal records, are fully automated and integrated with customs servers, and most importantly, this reform is backed by the Nigeria Customs Service Act, 2023, which provides the legal framework for electronic processes, overtime cargo timelines, and disposal methods,” she said.
In his remark, the Customs Area Controller Kano/ Jigawa command, Dalhatu Abubakar urged stakeholders to key into the new system as according to him the initiative has come to stay in the Nigeria Customs Service.
