…accuse Web Fontane of gross incompetence
The 100% Compliance Team of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) had drawn the attention of the Ministry of Finance and other relevant agencies to persistent server breakdown of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
NAGAFF Compliance Team made this known in a letter addressed to the Finance Minister titled: “Incessant abr Chronic Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Server Failures and its Attendant Consequences,” signed by the National Coordinator, NAGAFF 100% Compliance, Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko.
The group 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, stressing that the situation has become untenable.
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.”
“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 N62,000.00 per day. The Shipping companies charge N58,000.00 pper 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 N192,000,000 being lost daily.”
The group accused Webb Fontaine of gross incompetence and called for a comprehensive review of the company’s performance amid plans to change the IT company for Customs.
