Perennial Nigeria Customs Servere Breakdown: NAGAFF 100% Compliance Seeks Ministerial Intervention

Perennial Nigeria Customs Server Breakdown: NAGAFF 100% Compliance Seeks Ministerial Intervention
………says Web Fontane grossly incompetent
……..vows to shutdown the port if matter is not addressed

NAGAFF 100% Compliance , National coordinator,Hon.(Dr)  Ibrahim Tanko

By Frank Odinukaeze

The incessant Nigeria Customs Service Server breakdown has drawn the ire of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders NAGAFF 100% Compliance ,as the organisation has petitioned the Honourable Minister of Finance and the coordinating Minister of Economy.
In a petition Titled : INCESSANT AND CHRONIC NIGERIA CUSTOMS SERVICE SERVER FAILURES AND ITS ATTENDANT CONSEQUENCES,and
signed by the National Coordinator, NAGAFF 100% Compliance,Hon.(Dr.) Ibrahim Tanko,and copied to relevant  government agencies, including Senates Committee on Customs,House of Representatives Committee on Customs,Chief of Staff to the President , Secretary to the Federal Government , Managing Director Nigeria ports Authority , Executive Secretary , Shipper’ Council , Commissioner of Police ,Western Port,Director DSS,and port Manager Apapa/ Ton can port,the organisation emphasizes the urgency of the matter as the constant  server breakdowns has brought untold hardship and financial losses to the freight forwarders and users of the facility.
Hon. Tanko noted that the recent server failures within the Nigeria Customs Service have significantly impacted trade operations. With an estimated daily loss of ₦192 million due to trapped containers, the situation has become untenable.
Dr.Tanko said the alleged appointment of a new service provider to replace the existing one raises concerns about competence and accountability.
Part of the petition reads,
“The Honorable Minister Sir, we are deeply saddened to inform your good office that for the last three weeks, we have been saddled with an unbearable yoke of intermittent server collapse and or failure in the Nigeria customs service platform.

“Sir, this breakdown and failure of customs servers have in no small measure occasioned an unimaginable hardship, demurrage, loss of revenue, and serious disruption of services in the maritime industry. The attendant losses are better imagined both for us as freight forwarders and the federal government.

“The Honorable sir, we as stakeholders and users of the customs servers are going through a lot in the hands of our teeming customers, shipping companies and terminal operators. This is so as the terminal Operators charge the sum of #62,000.00 (sixty two thousand naira) per day. The Shipping companies charge #58,000.00 (fifty eight thousand naira) per day. For instance sir, we have an average of 1,600 containers trapped by the server failure in each of the ports of Apapa, TinCan, PTML and Kirikiri Lighter terminal respectively, with an estimated sum of #192,000,000(One hundred and ninety two million naira) being lost daily.

“Where this sum is multiplied with more than two thousand containers that are equally denied exit from off dock terminals, due to the server failure/breakdown, the consequential effect is better imagined than experienced. “This had been a recurring decimal over time with the customs service provider, namely, WEB FONTAINE
Sir, it is now being alleged that a new outfit or new service provider has been appointed to replace the WEB FONTAINE. If that is the case Honorable sir, we respectfully call for a total review of their contract for the circumstance and situation has degenerated to unbearable state. We are taken aback as to why such outfit that has over the time manifested gross incompetence is hired and allowed to oversee such critical infrastructure of the Nigeria customs service.

‘Moreover, our association and other freight forwarders wish to know how and when the service contract was entered and consummated, why the server failures and breakdown is so frequent and unabated. There is so much pain and untold hardship, this has caused serious frustration, and also led to restiveness among freight forwarders. If not, our appeal and our untiring peace efforts, things would have gone out of hand.

“If we may ask sir, howbeit rhetorically, how long will this menace continue unabated? Sir if this ugly situation is allowed to persists, we may have no other option than to shut down the entire Ports. Hence we implore you sir to intervene as soon as practicable.

“We therefore sir, call on you to use your good offices to critically look into this customs server breakdown and failures that make the customs network and or servers to breakdown so frequently and offer a lasting solution.” it concluded.