The Secretary-General of the Association of Bonded Terminal Operators of Nigeria, Mr Haruna Omolajomo, has stated that 40 per cent of the bonded terminals in Nigeria lack the basic facilities required to operate the terminals.

Omolajomo, who stated this in a chat with The PUNCH, attributed the situation to a lack of access to proper funding, adding that bonded terminals in Nigeria were operating less than 10 per cent of their capacities.

“And all these bonded terminals in Nigeria, if you look at them, you discover that some of them lack the basic facilities to be called bonded terminals. I would say about 30 – 40 per cent of them do not have the basic facilities,” Omolajomo said.

Omolajomo added that most of the so-called bonded terminals are bonded warehouses. “It is supposed to be a bonded terminal, but most of them are bonded warehouses and not bonded terminals,” he said.

Speaking on the recent directive by the Comptroller-General of Customs to ban bonded terminals from clearing imported pharmaceutical products, Omolajomo stressed that the directive has been on for a long time now.

“Because for such a long time, we have already said that all pharmaceutical products should go to bonded terminals. The reason for that was that used products, like a spare part or whatever, the bonded terminals do not always undergo a 100 per cent examination.

“Because they wanted everything to be done at the premier post, so that they could ensure 100 per cent examination on them. Then, for medical products, too, if you go to bonded terminals, not all of them have the necessary agencies on the ground. So that’s why they now say that all these things should be done at the premier post,” he stressed.