…blames non-compliance of agents
Babajide Okeowo
Following a claim by, the Vice President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, (ANLCA) Kayode Farinto , that the collapse of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Program (SONCAP) online application portal was responsible for the huge demurrage incurred by its member, SON has described this claim as a blatant lie.
Rather, the organisation said it is those importers who failed to comply with the pre-shipment process who are crying wolf on the accumulation of demurrage on their consignments.
According to a statement from the office of the Director-General, Osita Aboloma signed by the Head, Public Relations, SON Bola Fashina, the portal was recently upgraded to ensure optimal performance, enhance a seamless operation and more efficient service delivery to customers and stakeholders alike.
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Fashina disclosed that some of the advantages the upgraded SONCAP portal offer are a one-stop-shop that provides clients opportunity to apply, track application, send messages to SON and receive responses as well upload evidence of payments seamlessly, profile of the work done and documents used for application are available on Clients’ dashboard and eliminate Tax Identification Number (TIN) error amongst others
Fashina alluded to a recent challenge in transmitting approved and activated SONCAP certificates to the National trade portal which according to him was not peculiar to SON but all other trade-related agencies from January 22, 2020.
He stated that the issue has since been rectified on the national trade portal and all pending SONCAP certificates transmitted to the Nigerian Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS) portal as at February 1, 2020.
On the claim that importers were accumulating demurrage as a result of the gap, Fashina explained that the SONCAP is a pre-shipment process, stressing that only non-compliant importers, who apply for the certificates after the arrival of their consignments that are crying foul.
He said some importers who brought in about 182 containers into the country without following the pre-shipment conformity assessment process are those trying to circumvent established procedure and crying wolf.
According to him, such consignments would naturally be subjected to scrutiny, seized if found to be substandard while those behind then would face prosecution.
He advised importers to follow the import procedures strictly by ensuring that they process their product and SONCAP certificates offshore rather than looking for short cuts after the consignments have arrived in Nigeria.
