There are strong indications that the Federal Government may grant approval for the termination of an agreement reached with Webb Fontaine to develop a single platform for a general Custom transaction through the Automated Systems for Customs Data (ASYCUDA).
According to findings, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and her Transportation counterpart, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, have written a letter to the Presidency, seeking approval for the establishment of a National Trade Platform (NTP).
The letter is to seek Federal Executive Council’s approval for the establishment of the NTP through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and use of a portion of the Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) levy as a source of funding for the project.
According to the letter dated December 7, 2017, with reference No. EC(2017)224, the two ministers explained that the NTP is a strategic project aimed at improving security, increase revenue and facilitate economic diversification by enhancing the efficiency of operations at the nation’s seaports and border stations.
The joint letter further condemned Webb Fortaine’s operations, describing its efforts as a “patchwork solution” which has not achieved the target set in the contract, saying the current import and export procedure is cumbersome, unpredictable and characterised by an extensive eight-step partially automated process.
It was gathered that in developing the project, the concept was presented to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, on January 24, 2017, at the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) during the inauguration of the Steering Committee Co-chaired by the Comptroller General of the Customs and Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
It stated that “despite this partial automation, the use of insufficient and outdated technology, along with the lack of integrity across various stages of cargo clearing processes result in duplicative data entry, multiple payment points, significant revenue leakage and national security vulnerability.
“Further, the lack of integration and information sharing among the various federal government agencies result in significant processing delays and inhibit the free flow of trades”, it added.
The background to the project according to the document is the provision of the single window that has been at the heart of the modernisation programme at the Nigeria Customs Service.
“The output is expected to be a truly modernised national trading platform comprising of three business units, which include single window, port community system and scanning services, similar to the programmes that have been implemented in markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong – countries with truly modern port facilities.
The new single window structures will replace the current electronic portal and customs automation infrastructure which were deployed in 2006 and is also targeted at enhancing ease of doing business through a web-based platform that is more user-friendly”, the letter pointed out.
It would be recalled that in the year 2006, the Federal Government decided to bring in Webb Fontaine to develop a single platform for the general Custom transaction.Part of the agreement that was reached was that Webb Fontaine will collect 0.6% of whatever Nigeria Custom generates monthly.