Colonel Hamid Ali

Col. Hamid Ali (rtd) Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has expressed concern that most of the manifests paraded by multinational shipping companies operating in Nigeria are full of irregularities.

He made the remark on Thursday in Lagos when he visited Mr Hassan Bello, the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC).

He called for synergy among maritime agencies to ensure that imports and exports were properly documented.

He said that as commercial regulator of ports in the country, the council should collaborate with the Nigeria Customs Service

Ali said that some ship manifests received by NCS were falsified while others were incorrect.

“Sometimes we do not get those records we needed to do our jobs from the shippers. Some of the manifests which come to us have a lot of problems. Some of them are falsified, while some are not correct,’’ he said.

The comptroller-general said that NCS had put in place mechanism to address the irregularities discovered in ship manifests.

In his response, Bello said that collaboration among agencies of government was key in moving the maritime sector forward, adding that inter-agency collaboration would add value to nation’s economy.

The executive secretary appealed to the Federal Government to put in place necessary facilities to boost the business of port operators.