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NAFDAC, Customs Agents Differ On Destination Inspection Of Goods
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANCLA), Seme Border has said that destination examination of goods after customs’ clearance is unnecessary.
ANCLA Spokesman, Chief Mike Onwesu, said at a forum organised by the Nigeria Customs, Seme Border Command that destination examination delays the clearance of goods at the border.
The stakeholders’ forum was organised at the instance of Time Release Group, which visited the command to help in the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Service (ETLS) reform.
According to Onwesu, destination examination by NAFDAC and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) was uncalled for.
“Apart from the delay ANCLA members and forwarders experience during Duty Tariff Inspection (DTI) and Global Scan, inspection by NAFDAC and SON after Customs inspection should be scrapped.
“These two outfits should be removed from the border post and send to foreign land to do pre-destination examination,” he said.
But Mr Stanley Atabor, NAFDAC’s Area Coordinator, Seme Border Post said that he was surprised that ANCLA was getting the mission of NAFDAC and other agencies wrong.
“NAFDAC is a government security agency which has the mandate to protect Nigerians against fake and substandard goods,” he said.
“NAFDAC is the National Health Police because it regulates goods coming into the country and ensures it does not have debilitating effects on the populace,” Atabor said.
According to him, the agents are only victims of their own antics because most times they are guilty of concealment of goods.