The Nigeria Customs Service, Area ll Command, Onne Port has received a cargo scanning machine as earlier assured by the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hammed Ali (Rtd).

This was revealed in a press statement by

the PRO, Portharcourt Area ll Command Onne Port, Ifeoma Onuigbo Ojekwu.

The Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Auwal Mohammed 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 as they were not able to examine more than a hundred containers daily but with the new scanner, it will be able to carry out examination on two hundred containers on daily basis.

While receiving the machine, Mohammed said “Before the arrival of the scanner, examinations of cargoes were usually done manually and physically, whereby containers were positioned by the terminal operators. Then they provide gang of labourers while officers of the Nigeria Customs Service and other agencies come for the examination”.

“They cut off the seal manually, and then the contents inside containers are discharged manually by the labourers. Then, inspection or examinations are conducted by officers and other stakeholders. This takes time sometimes because of the packing of the good in the container; and this is an examination that is done to confirm the declaration made by the agent or importer tallies with the content of the container” he added.

He further stated that “Virtually everything has to be carried or moved out of the container, then back into the container before examination is concluded. So it is cumbersome. It is time consuming, and not much containers are properly examined on a daily basis”.

“So with the coming of the scanner, which is a non-intrusive examination apparatus, examination will now be conducted with the use of x-ray” the Controller said.

The Controller added 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.

He also thanked the CGC for his unrelenting drive in modernising the Nigeria Customs Service.

The scanner, a product of Nuctech, was brought by Maersk Karun vessel from Shanghai China with model number MT1213DE.

The Covid cases in Nigeria have surpassed 200,000 in 18 months after the first positive case was identified in an Italian traveler on Feb. 27, 2020, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease (NCDC).

The NCDC via its official website on Wednesday morning said that Nigeria’s COVID-19 cases had skyrocketed to 200,057.

Follow our Facebook page

The NCDC announced it had recorded 519 additional COVID-19 infections on Tuesday from 14 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) showing an increase from the 387 cases reported on Monday. The agency also reported 18 deaths on Tuesday, to push the death rate in the country to 2,637.

“The 519 new cases are reported from 15 states — Lagos (120), Ondo (110), Rivers (74), Edo (63), FCT (58), Oyo (31), Kaduna (15), Bayelsa (11), Cross River (11), Delta (11), Kano (5), Ogun (4), Plateau (3), Adamawa (2), and Gombe (1).

Incase You Missed:

Japan Stops use of 1.63m Moderna Vaccine Doses Over Contamination

NCDC Records 37 New Cases of Covid-19

COVID-19: FG says it may not enforce total lockdown again

Tokyo to be Under State of Emergency for Duration of Olympics

Ajayi Eyes Win Against Senegal

CHILD MARRIAGE, ITS CAUSES AND EFFECT – ENOCH ABRAHAM

Scores Dead, Dozens Missing as Floods Hits Germany and Belgium

Africa wants to buy Covid-19 vaccines, rather than keep waiting for donor-funded doses to arrive, the African Union said Tuesday, imploring producers to give the continent a fair shot at market access.
The AU also urged manufacturing nations to lift export bans so the continent can begin to address for itself the glaring inequity in access to coronavirus jabs, as wealthy nations hog available doses.
Just nine vaccine doses have been administered per 100 people in Africa, according to an AFP calculation.
That figure stands at 118 doses per 100 people in the United States and Canada; 104 in Europe; 85 in Asia; 84 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 69 in Oceania and 54 in the Middle East.

Follow us on Facebook
African nations “have been left behind by the rest of the world”, said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The UN health agency chief spelled out the danger of leaving Africa so poorly covered by vaccines.
“This doesn’t only hurt the people of Africa, it hurts all of us,” he said.
“The longer vaccine inequity persists, the more the virus will keep circulating and changing, the longer the social and economic disruption will continue, and the higher the chances that more variants will emerge that render vaccines less effective.” He added.

Read Also:

We Will Implement Passenger Airfare Refund Upon Delay – NCAA

Sudan Receives 218,000 Vaccine Doses from France