Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — The leadership of WebFountain in the Republic of Benin has said that Nigeria and nine other African countries have undertaken a study of the deployment of its Single Window application to port operation in that country.
WebFountain is global provider of technology-based Customs operations, with a Single Window platform integrating all ports activities which in Nigeria involves other authorities including Port Authorities, Nigerian Shippers Council, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON, among others.
Speaking on the sideline of the just concluded Nigerian Ports and Trade Investment Forum, Director of Operations of WebFountain in Benin, Mr. Tankian Coulibaly, said that about ten countries including Nigeria came to Benin Republic sometime this year for this purpose.
He said: “Some representatives of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, came this year to see our Single Window and Port Community Systems and when the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, came to Benin he also paid us a visit to see how we are running the project.
“There is no system that do not break down but the time within which the break down is fixed is what matters, the PCS we are building is not yet completely built up, it is a process.
“We are still adding stakeholders and modifying programmes so it is an ongoing project. When there is a breakdown, there is no trade and when there is no trade, there could be a protest.”
On Lekki Port being a threat to the Port of Cotonou, Coulibaly said that of the cargo that into Cotonou is not necessarily for Benin adding Lekki Port is an opportunity for port users.
