Freight Forwarders and the organised private sector players operating at the Lagos ports have demanded the reversal of the federal executive decision banning the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) from the ports.
The federal government in 2011 reduced the agencies operating at the ports for cargo clearance from 14 to seven. But worried by the increasing number of substandard goods in the market, importers and clearing agents rose at the end of a stakeholders’ meeting to demand the return of SON to the seaports.
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Speaking on Thursday during a maritime stakeholders’ sensitization forum, the Vice President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr Kayode Farinto, said the increase in the import of sub-standard goods and the efforts of some nonconformists showed that there is need to reverse the executive decision if the nation must win the war against the importation of sub-standard goods.
The President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Chief Tochukwu Ezisi, urged SON to engage stakeholders more, noting that is key to improving accountability within the organisation as well as external audiences.
The Director-General of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, said no one is tracking importers of substandard goods at the ports at the moment and attributed the high rate of insecurity in the country to the importation of substandard goods.
“They allow us once in a while to check goods but that should not be the way, because SON should not depend on the kindness of other organisations to do its work.
“The 2015 Act, Section 7(30b) says the standards organisation must be at the port of entry into this country,” he said.
