CTN: 80% cargo imports into Nigeria under-declared -NSC

The Nigerian Shippers Council NSC has said that its decision to reintroduce the Cargo Tracking Note CTN into Nigeria’s shipping was partly informed by the need to checkmate the growing underdeclaration of imported cargo, insisting that over 80 per cent of all imported cargo does not reflect the true volume and value.

Meanwhile, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria MAN, and the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture NACCIMA have given provisional approval for the reintroduction of the system provided that it does not inflict additional cost on importers and exporters.

Executive Secretary/CEO of the council, Mr. Hassan Bello, who spoke with news men in Lagos, said that the Federal Government loses huge sums of money due to deliberate underdeclaration of ship tonnage over the years.

According to him, more often than not when ships coming to Nigeria declare 30, 000 Gross Tonnage GRT, the tonnage is usually higher because of the unspecific nature of the bill of laden, which is the only document that contains the ship information.

“CTN will checkmate underdeclaration of the GRT of any ship because it will state in specific terms the nature or type of the consignment and volume in terms of the tonnage while the bill of laden will just say: ‘said to contain’”, he said.

He also said: “The CTN is a major step towards a national single window platform that would connect all the other government private agencies operating at the ports including the Nigeria Customs Service, The Nigerian Ports Authority and Standards Organisation of Nigeria etc”.

Investigations showed that in most other climes, the national single window is run by independent organisations not necessarily the customs administration or the port authority, as stakeholders have argued that the case must not be different.

It was also gathered that the public outcry that trailed the introduction of the CTN by NPA was because it was tied to revenue generation, as importers alleged then that they were compelled to pay 150 Euros on every container they imported while the policy lasted.

The NSC-boss noted that in addition to check revenue losses to the government through the underdeclaration of the GRT of the ships, the CTN would also boost Nigeria’s compliance with the International Ships and Ports facility Security ISPS Code. Following the plans to reintroduce the system, the NSC had commenced consultations with relevant stakeholders including Customs, NPA, freight forwarders and more recently MAN and NACCIMA. President MAN, Mr. Frank Njemba- Jacobs, who played host to the NSC team during one of such sensitization visits, assured that his association would support the reintroduction of the CTN, which is expected to bring about advance cargo information system into the country.

He however gave a caveat that the one and only condition on which members of the association, which is the biggest group for real sector operators was that it would not inflict additional cost on shippers. The MAN-boss said: “We are satisfied with all the explanations that the NSC has given to us but we think that the technical members of all the stakeholders should get together and further discuss it”.

“But I think it is something that will help us, so we are going to support it at the end. We are hoping that it will not attract any additional cost to the manufacturers in view of the fact that we want to make sure that cost of doing business is reduced, Jacobs also said.