By Steve Agbota
President Mohammadu Buhari, has directed the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, to reintroduce Cargo Tracking Notes (CTN) in a bid to curb the proliferation of arms and rising cases of banditry across the nation.
Buhari, who is still shopping for ideas to beef up security in the country, is convinced that CTN could play a crucial role in enabling the nation address its growing spate of banditry, kidnappings and restiveness fueled by easy access to guns.
Consequently, Amaechi has directed the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) to commence preparation to assume responsibility for the administration of CTN upon its takes off.
The Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) or the ECTN (Electronic Cargo Tracking Note), is a system for collecting documents and processing information, when exporting by sea in order to obtain prior information, to participate in security measures, statistics, and generally in order to participate in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Customs Organisation (WCO) recommendations on trade facilitation and security.
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NCS) was urged to introduce the system in a way that shouldn’t add to the cost of doing business at the ports, but to enable the nation track imports from ports of origin to drastically reduce import of arms.
In 2017 alone, over 2671 pump-action rifles were intercepted at Nigerian seaports. The guns were legally registered for export in Turkey as pump-action rifles for hunting but the manifests were changed in Morocco to become steel doors to enable the container gain entry into Nigeria.
With CTN, however, Nigeria would have been able to see the original manifests from Turkey and intercept the guns before the consignments arrived in Nigeria.
Speaking on the reintroduction of CTN, a maritime lawyer, technocrat and Director of Education and Research in the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Dr. Alban Igwe, said CTN remains the best answer to issues of security challenges in the country.Igwe explained that this was because CTN will improve the security and safety of the supply chain as it will profile cargoes being imported into the country. “The objective is to improve the security and safety of the supply chain and help us see the profile of products we are bringing in. It will help us know the origin and destination of cargoes and help us know our enemies,” he said.
