From Anthony Nwachukwu, Lagos
Poised to boost operational efficiency, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has commissioned a comprehensive e-documents management and records solutions centre to enable it develop and improve seamless customer-based services and operations.
Unveiling the facility, NPA Ag Managing Director, Mohammed Bello Koko, stated that it would enable the agency to migrate from physical archiving to digitalisation, thereby serving as antidote to vandalism, theft and arson.
According to Koko, this migration extends to work flow via electronic documents management solution (EDMS), with strategies to localise same at port locations as functional retention centres, while also complying with the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).
He explained that the speed and seamless nature of the EDMS in records storage and processing bear on the organisation’s desire to achieve customer satisfaction and excellence while promoting the ease of doing business.
He disclosed that the ISO framework positions agencies to reap the benefits of enhanced records management, including “meeting legal obligations for accurate storage and retrievals,” while the e-documents facility will improve accountability and transparency, and strengthen the agency’s auditing system and training process to world class standard.
According to him, achieving a 360° document management solution was in line with the NPA’s strategic intent to sustain competiveness in the sub-region by prioritising document safety through automation and digitalisation.
“At the moment, the NPA has two other functional retention centres – in Apapa and Port Harcourt, to serve the Lagos and eastern ports respectively, in addition to another record centre along the Apapa Port area, which is currently being automated,” Koko disclosed.
The pilot project of the end-to-end documents management solution is expected to have been achieved before the end of 2021.
Customs finds arms, ammunition in ‘tokumbo’ car at Tin Can Port
· Ogun Command denies arms smuggling allegation
From Anthony Nwachukwu, Lagos
The Tin Can Island Port Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said its operatives at the Five-star Logistics Terminal discovered a pistol with magazine in a Toyota Camry car at the exit point over the weekend.
In a statement, the Command Public Relations Officer, Mr. Uche Ejesieme, added that “consequently, and in line with our standard operating procedure (SOP), the DSS, police and other security agencies were invited to the scene.”
Thereafter, the exhibits were taken to the command’s enforcement unit for safe custody pending a formal report to the NCS headquarters on Monday for further directives.
Meanwhile, the Area Controller, Compt. Musa Abdullahi, has directed immediate investigation into the incident to unravel those behind it and truncate their supply chain.
He reiterated the agency’s advice to importers and agents to desist from offensive imports, particularly items on the absolute prohibition list, because of the dire consequences.
In another development, the NCS Ogun I Command has denied claims that arms were being smuggled into the country through the state as reportedly alleged by the Chairman of NANS JCC, Damilola Simeon Kehinde, and National President of NAOSS, Ogunrombi Gbemileke.
In a statement by the Public Relations Officer, Hammed Oloyode, the command described the allegation as misleading and likely to create unnecessary tension in the state and country, adding that the command had never allowed the smuggling of arms and ammunition into the country in whatever form, and will never do so.
According to the statement, the command has since fortified the numerous illegal routes through which contrabands were being smuggled into the country by aggressive patrols, and has stepped up its anti-smuggling operations to checkmate the nefarious activities of enemies of the state.
“Other allegations of smuggling taking place during the daytime is only in the imagination of the fabricator of that story,” the statement claimed. “The tightened security architecture in the state today by customs and other security agencies will not permit smuggling of contrabands and other prohibited items at night time, not to talk of during the day.”
The command disclosed that since January, it has seized over 1,500 different contrabands and prohibited items, including 46,491 bags of foreign parboiled rice, used vehicles, used shoes and clothing and tomato paste, as well as export-bound sativa (Indian hemp) and petroleum products since January.
It urged the “students, their sponsors and collaborators” to focus on their studies to become better citizens tomorrow, and to channel their energies into educating their fellow members in the different communities on the dangers of smuggling “instead of being used for blackmail of government institution(s).
