Vanguard
25 December 2008
SGS Nigeria, one of the service providers engaged by the Federal Government to assist the management of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in the provision of risk assessment on all imports, has issued a total of 20,000 Risk Assessment Report (RAR) between January and November this year.
The 20,000 RAR's were issued by the company in its areas of operation which includes Onne Port, Port Harcourt air and sea ports, Idi-iroko and Kwara airports.
From left: Mr. Joseph Owoeyi, Deputy Managing Director, SGS; Mr. Nigel Balchin, Managing Director and Mr. Emmanuel Oyebode also of SGS at a function in Lagos, recently.
Disclosing this in Lagos over the weekend, Managing Director of the Destination Inspection Agents, Mr. Nigel Balchin, said that they also rejected about 18 to 20 percent of all the Form "M's" submitted by importers through their banks.
Balchin said the Form "M's" were rejected because they were not eligible, incomplete or the value is in-exhaustive. According to him, there are some cases where the value shown in commercial invoice is below the normal market price and hence the SGS valuation opinion is uplifted accordingly.
Speaking further, Balchin explained that apart from the Fee on Board (FOB) value of the goods, there are also uplifts in freight. There have been instances of declarations showing a freight rate from China of $2,000 for a 40 foot container whereas the normal rate is around $4,000.
He said that between January and now the company scanned 50 trucks at Idi-Iroko border station, noting that it is an improvement when compared to last year when only seven trucks were scanned, although they commenced operation in August of 2007.
He explained that the volume of trucks scanned would have been more but for their sizes as regards height and weight which make it impossible for the trucks to go through the scanning machine.
However, the SGS boss pointed out that in Onne there has been a moderate increase in the volume of RAR issued in 2008 over 2007 and a corresponding increase in the number of containers scanned.
He also noted that unconfirmed report has it that cargoes were being diverted to Lagos ports because of the action of militants. According to him, Maerskline had to suspend their vessels from calling at Onne temporarily because of the action of militants.
He said that high unofficial charges were also placed consignments coming to Onne than those going to Lagos. He blamed the current congestion at the Lagos ports for the delay of Onne bound ships.
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