The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS have called on agents, importers and exporters among other stakeholders to as a matter of urgency onboard their licenses to migrate to the newly developed indigenous unified customs management system or application referred to as B’ODOGWU in order not to be left with demurrage charges.
The call was coming on the heels that the management can decide that henceforth manifest be transmitted through the app and where they are yet to migrate to the app they may be left with demurrage charges.
A member of the B’ODOGWU implemention team from Abuja, Assistant Superintendent Sadiq Abubakar made the call during a one day sensitization for the stakeholders at the Kano/Jigawa Command of the Customs.
Abubakar said the new app came with new features to ensure transparency, compliance and efficiency among others.
According to him, “the reason why we are appealing for you to onboard all active license is that if at any time the management decide that all manifests henceforth will only be transmitted on B’ODOGWU, you will be left with demurrage. And that is something you will not want.
“It is very important you do this so that one’s you have your access anytime that declaration starts at the command you will just key in.
“B’ODOGWU is safe. It is on a local server hosted at the headquarters and data centre of the NCS. So it is not a foreign company in China or Russia or USA. It is owned and operated by NCS. All the data is safe. You can log into it in any part of the world and do your work. It operates with different and independent networks and has back up to ensure no downtime and that is why work is going on smoothly in Port Terminal Multiservices Limited, PTML.
“We have been doing these in the past six months (September last year) in PTML in Lagos. The management decided to further sensitize commands. Kano/Jigawa command is among the command scheduled for roll out anytime soon,” Abubakar said.
The Kano/Jigawa Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Dalhatu Abubakar however warned to key into the new indigenous application as no excuse will be tolerated during implementation.
He said the new system is a digital platform designed to automate and streamline customs processes and ensures risk management, as well as enabling automated clearance of low-risk shipments among others.
However, the Chairman, Kano State Association of Nigerian Licence Customs Agents, Hafiz Rilwan commended the federal government and the NCS initiatives for migrating to the new platform of transaction for improved service delivery.
