Follow Us on Google
•N192m lost daily, stakeholders lament
By Steve Agbota, [email protected]
For over a week running, clearing agents have not been able to lift their cargoes from Lagos ports due to an alleged server failure of Webb Foutaine, the Customs internet service provider, which crippled clearing operations.
With hundreds of containers trapped at these terminals, importers and clearing agents are gnashing their teeth and counting their losses as peppery demurrages swell.
Shipping companies will naturally slam the owners with storage charges and so will terminal operators. The horror commenced penultimate Monday due to the network problem that emanated from Webb Fountaine, the service provider at the ports.
Daily Sun learnt that the same problem of server failure occurred some time ago which led mass protests against Messrs Webb Fontaine. Freight forwarders accused them of incompetence and called for revocation of their contract as the Nigeria Customs Internet Service Provider.
Daily Sun also learnt that due to the server failure by the Senegalese IT firm, Webb Foutaine, over 1,600 containers are currently trapped on a daily basis at Apapa Port, Tin Can Island Port and the rest while economy loses N192 million daily.
Conversely, clearing agents and importers lamented that they are paying for the inefficiency of the IT firm in terms of rent and demurrage. This is even as they said the problem has deeply hurt Customs operations across various commands.
This awkward development has forced the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) to cry out and escalate its concerns over the recurrent server failures plaguing the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
The association also wrote a formal petition to the Federal Ministry of Finance seeking its intervention.
In a letter addressed to the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, the National Coordinator of the 100 percent Compliance team under NAGAFF, Ibrahim Tanko, expressed profound dismay over the debilitating impact of the ongoing server malfunctions.
Tanko highlighted the severe repercussions, including heightened hardship, demurrages, revenue losses, and disruptions across the maritime industry.
The petition detailed the distressing scenario faced by freight forwarders, with an estimated 1,600 containers stranded daily at major ports such as Apapa, Tin Can, PTML, and Kirikiri Lighter terminal.
These delays have culminated in financial losses exceeding millions of naira on a daily basis.
Amid growing frustrations and restiveness among stakeholders, the petition urged for an immediate review of the service provider’s contract and demanded transparency regarding its procurement.
He emphasised the urgency for swift interventions to avert the potential shutdown of port operations, underscoring the need for lasting solutions to address the systemic server failures.
“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.
“The sir, we 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 per day. The Shipping companies charge N58,000.00 per day.
“For instance sir, we have an average of 1,600 containers trapped by the server failure in each of the ports of Apapa, Tin Can, PTML and Kirikiri Lighter terminal respectively, with an estimated sum of N192 million being lost daily,” the letter reads in full details.
He said then the sum is multiplied with more than 2000 containers that are equally denied exit from off dock terminals due to the server failure/breakdown, the consequential effect is better imagined than experienced.
According to him, this had been a recurring decimal over time with the customs service provider, namely, Webb Foutaine.
Speaking with Daily Sun, a foremost freight forwarder in the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Sulaiman Ayokunle, said that the issue of server failure has been affecting the activities of clearing agents and importers in the port.
“The opinion I might take on it is as good as a good well meaning Nigerian. Can you imagine someone paying for another person’s inefficiency. Consignments in the port is not a warehouse. They are top gap solutions. That is why you see every agent making efforts to deliver as soon as possible because dummerage is always like per-second.
“You can imagine someone somewhere taking money as an IT operator and an adviser not being bothered about incessant breakdown of their server. It is so appalling, it is insulting and embarrassing. You know this Webb Foutaine they are not from Nigeria, they are from Senegal. It is alleged that this is a sabotage. Why is the breakdown of the server is incessant?
“Webb Foutaine they are not Nigerians, we Nigerians are now paying for their inefficiency in terms of rent and dummerage. Rent and dummerage are something that are avoidable. And where server breakdown is incessant so common, in fact; it is as common as paracetamol. We have breakdown now even more than the main active aspect of the server. Imagine, importers and agents are going through this. All Nigerians should remember, this thing will come back to the final consumer,” he lamented.
He said the server breakdown is so common to the extent that they are asking them to handover some aspects of the IT of Customs to the Nigeria Customs Service to manage, as agents continue to witness daily breakdown.
He said at times the server breakdown will last more than 72 hours, five days, saying if this is happening in other country, there will be serious protest.
“We don’t want anybody to take us for granted (ANLCA) thinking the association will continue to cooperate. If the situation continues like this, the association might be force to take alternative steps. So it is not something we should encourage. It is something we should all condemned by all well meaning Nigerians. An IT operator from Senegal creating problems for us here in Nigeria through the service they render to Nigeria Customs Service,” he said.
Also speaking with Daily Sun, the National President, National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero said that Webb Foutaine contract were expired since 2013, saying the best thing the government should do is to set up a committee to look at the issue of the server failure and proffer solutions to put an end to it.
He said between 2013 and 2014, Webb Foutaine licence supposed to have expired, saying the only problem was that former Customs Comptroller General, Dikko messed up the whole thing.
“This is the situation we are trying to correct now. That licence was criminally included as the only thing that is happening. So what the government needs to do is to set up the committee on that issue of Webb Foutaine because the contract with them originally has expired in 2013.
“From 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, Webb Foutaine was not supposed to be around. All these things are the tings the government supposed to look into. I was sub-Presidential committee to reform Customs and I was the one that wrote the report.”
Webb Foutaine is having is a license, which supposed to have been look into maybe bring in a new thing completely.
“So Webb Foutaine is not supposed to be in the system up till now. They supposed to have been reorganise or reapply. What they have been doing is extending it I don’t know how they are doing it because that licence has been there . The licence is the issue because every other thing in terms of equipment, backbone and all the rest are all owned by Customs. Government needs to set up a committee to look at that issue of Webb Foutaine because the issue is exploitative,” he explained.
According to him, the committee that will be set up by government will look at the whole thing to see how Customs can be free from the epileptic situation because Webb Foutaine data collection machine might not be enough.
He said Webb Foutaine should have done is to expand the data collection because the data coming from Nigeria is high in nature, saying the server failure has been happening and Webb Foutaine is supposed to be held responsible because people are paying demurrage and rent.
“It is not Customs fault but that of Webb Foutaine because is the one handling those things. So I don’t know the arrangement they have with the government as at now. When Col Hammed Ali was there, Webb Foutaine was still there and they are being there. Even the old scanning machine and the new ones are being there. There is need for government to reorganise the whole thing,” he said.
He added that Webb Foutaine should be held responsible for the dummerage and no importer should pay dummerage and rent when Webb Foutaine has the problem of server failure.
He said it has to do with transaction, which committed and it is not like MTN and the rest, saying this one has to do with dummerages and rent, adding that somebody must be liable mismanagement, which is Webb Foutaine.
“If they cannot provide those services, they should terminate them and look for people who can provide the services. Government needs to look at the issue critically because it is affecting trade and people are paying dummerages.
“That is how you have abandoned containers. When you don’t have money to pay for three days and your money extend to 10 days and they are not waving the rent they have to go and look for money to pay for the remaining seven days. When you can’t source for the money, you have to find out that you have to abandoned the container. So it is Webb Foutaine fault.,” he added.
Meanwhile, the National president of the Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON), Frank Ogunojemite said
the protracted server failure, which has lingered for a couple too long and it has added to the hardships freight forwarders and their importers are currently going through at the nation’s ports to clear their goods.
Ogunojemite urged the Federal Government to either sack the Nigeria Customs internet service provider, Webb Fontaine for gross incompetence and for jeopardising its policy on Ease of Doing Business or urgently engage another service provider so as to bring to an end the national embarrassment.
“Today, with the total shutdown of the Customs server for over a week now, clearing agents and their importers have been trying so hard to stay in business coupled with the 90% increase in Customs duty which has brought the industry and by extension, the national economy to its knees,” he said.
According to him, despite the server breakdown, shipping companies and terminal operators will still insist on collecting their charges without considering the unfortunate situation.
“It is high time we called upon the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shipper’s Council (NSC), Chairman, CRFFN and Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to rise up and address this unpalatable situation. And we continue to ask, why is such a case peculiar to Nigeria? Stakeholders must come together to address this issue once and for all as we suggest that the Federal Government engages another internet service provider to backup Messrs Webb Fountain to guarantee consistency,.
“We hereby appeal to all the associations in this very profession to officially notify shipping companies and terminal operators of the appalling situation therein appealing for waiver for all members.
“APFFLON is using this opportunity to plead to all shipping companies and terminal owners to look into the current situation and use their good offices to grant waivers to importers and their agents so as to reduce the heavy financial burden being hauled on them due to Customs server breakdown.
“And to professional colleagues and leaders, you are thereby expected to play a professional role by informing your importers about the current situation, they need to be carried along to avoid misinformation from wrong quarters,” he pleaded.
He said for the overall interest of the nation, the presidency and the National Assembly should make haste to address this avoidable economic sabotage.
