Worried by abuse of import duty waivers granted on charitable goods, the Federal Government has concluded plans to control the misused of these waivers by importers of such goosds.
This is as stakeholders demanded for a comprehensive standard operating procedure (SOP) for the shipment and ease of clearing humanitarian goods at Nigerian ports.
These were the outcome of a one-day stakeholders’ meeting on ‘Ease of Doing Business’ at the ports, organised in Lagos recently by the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) in collaboration with other agencies, to brainstorm on modalities to ease shipping and clearing of charitable items.
Ovie Omo-Agege, deputy-senate president, said import waivers on charitable items have been misused and abused not just by businessmen, but also by some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs).
According to him, it was evident that these anomalies do not only affect Nigeria but also some of her neighbors whose consignments of charitable items come through Nigerian ports.
“The result is that often, charitable items get entangled in high demurrage charges sometimes caused by delays in clearing due to denial of import duty waivers by relevant government ministries/agencies, late application of necessary documents by non-profit organisations, among others,” said Omo-Agege, stating that these often cause undue loss of items and financial losses.
Represented by Modupe Ozolua, senior assistant on NGOs and CSOs Affairs, Omo-Agege said given the present rise in the number of internally displaced persons (IDP) in Nigeria, the material and humanitarian losses can only be imagined.
“Charitable items are gifts donated by individuals, organisations or governments to the less privileged, usually through not-for-profit organisations, faith organisations or individuals. The items in turn come in different forms such as clothing, foodstuffs, medications, and assets and services,” he stated.
Rotimi Ameachi, minister of transportation said there was need to improve on the process and procedures for shipping and clearance of charitable materials at the Nigerian ports.
“We are equally aware that these aid items enjoy duty waiver, however experience has revealed that the process of obtaining duty waiver on these items takes time and such delay do translate to accumulated demurrage and rent charges on these charitable materials,” said Ameachi, who was represented by Victor Ewase.
Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe, chairman senate committee on Health and deputy chairman senate committee Diaspora and non-governmental organisations, said non-state actors both local and international organisations should collaborate to resolve the crisis and issues within the sector, so that charitable items could be cleared to point of destination without delays.
Hassan Bello, executive secretary of NSC, said that the essence of the gathering was to deliberate on how to transmit charitable items to their final consumers without difficulties.
He however charged the National Assembly to make laws and regulations in that regards.
“We have to come together to deliberate on the transmitting of these cargoes either here in Nigeria or even across our borders because we are under certain obligations. I remember two years back, Niger Republic was given some cargo and NSC was to help the exit but we faced some challenges,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ministry of Finance pointed out the need for importers of these items to comply with required conditions which includes; provisions of cooperation agreement, letter of donation, evidence of registration with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), packing list, and bill of laden, which must revalidates yearly as stipulated in the law.
Also, stakeholders including Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Ports Authority, and Ministry of Humanitarian agreed on the need to improve on timeliness of shipment of goods and provision of adequate compliance education to NGOs in the country.
On their parts, International NGOs and NAFDAC stressed the need to reduce cost of inspection by deployment of the latest radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, and soliciting penalty for agency that unduly delay charitable items.
