Group threatens to sue Customs over server failure

The Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers and Exporters Coalition has threatened to sue the Nigeria Customs Service and Webb Fontaine for issues arising over server failure.

The President of the association, Osita Patrick, said the server failure affected the operations of freight forwarders and cost them N200bn on a yearly basis.

Webb Fontaine, a leading provider of solutions for Trade Facilitation powered by Artificial Intelligence, has served as the official technology partner to the Nigeria Customs Service since 2006.

Patrick said, “We are going to sue Webb Fontaine and Customs next week if they fail to answer and explain to us without reasonable doubt why we should be having server issues.

“The server failure is disturbing our business. We spend over N200bn yearly as a mess coming out from Webb Fontaine failure. If a server spoils here, it touches the whole nation and there is no work anywhere.

He added, “If the server spoils, nobody will do work again. If it spoils for three days, that means nothing at all for that three days including shipping operators, companies and the rest of them.”

Patrick also tackled the Federal Government for reliance on manual inspection of cargoes.