The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Area ll Command, Onne Port has taken delivery of a mobile cargo scanning machine in line with its plans to facilitate trade.
According to a statement by Ifeoma Ojekwu, Customs Public Relations Officer, Auwal Mohammed, Customs Area Controller of the Command, described the arrival of the scanner as a positive milestone in the service efforts to modernise Customs operations, achieve ease of doing business, facilitate trade and enhance security with easier detection of prohibited imports.
Mohammed described the tortuous processes involved in physical examination as time consuming, which may not be perfect compare to using scanner.
According to him, the Command, which hitherto was not able to examine more than 100 containers daily, will now, be able to examine close to 200 containers daily using the new scanning machine.
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“Before the arrival of the scanner, examinations of cargoes were usually done manually and physically, whereby containers were positioned by the terminal operators. Then, gang of labourers will discharge the goods before Customs and other agencies will carry out the examination. Customs must also cut off the seal manually. This takes time because of the unpacking of the goods in the container,” he explains.
He said that virtually everything in the container must be moved out of the container and then back into the container before examination is concluded, which makes the process cumbersome and time consuming.
“With the coming of the scanner, which is a non-intrusive apparatus, cargo examination will now be conducted with the use of x-ray,” he said.
On the operation of the scanning machine, the Controller said that already trained Customs officers on scanning operation will undergo refresher training to update them on the latest technology.
According to him, any consignment found during image analysis to be containing suspected prohibition or concealments will be quickly referred for physical examination.
The mobile scanner, a product of Nuctech, was brought by Maersk Karun vessel from Shanghai China with model number MT1213DE.
