Clearing agents operating at nation’s seaports, have applauded the Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) for successfully putting an end to the era of illegal cargo sample collection at the ports.
LEADERSHIP reports that the before the PSTT was established in December 2020 by the presidency and domiciled under the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), officials of the Nigeria Customs Service(NCS); the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the National Agency for Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), take samples of regulated imported items for test to ensure compliance with safety standards without returning to the importers.
However, speaking at a meeting of the enlarged task team held at the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) secretariat, the vice-president, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Alhaji Kazeem Adua, said, before the coming of PSTT, importers and their agents were losing millions of naira to illegal picking of cargo samples by various government agencies at the port.
According to him, most importers would not pay their clearing agents because almost half of the cargo has been pilfered under the guise of sample collection.
