The comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Abdullahi Dikko Inde declared on Tuesday that the service has resolve to shut down terminals that are not rendering proficient service to importers.

Dikko speaking during the stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting on the newly launched ‘Nigeria Trade Hub’, an online national single window trading portal developed by Customs to manage all trade information and enquiries in Nigeria, disclosed that shipping companies and terminal operators are the greatest problem of cargo clearance in Nigerian ports today.

“The port is a Customs’ port. Therefore, I will go to the highest authority to get approval to discipline any terminal operator, whose operation does not facilitate trade in the port. We will sue them for lapses in the service they agreed to do in the concession agreement. And if such terminal uHuHHHis owned by Nigerians, we will penalise them but if it is a foreign owned terminal, we will deport the operators”, Dikko said.

He advocates that the Federal Government should encourage more Nigerian owned companies to manage the terminals in Nigerian ports because concessioning the port to foreigners only creates room for capital flight.

The Customs chief however, urged all the shipping companies and terminal operators to key into the process of Nigerian Trade Hub and the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) so as to fast track cargo clearance at the port.