Hameed Ali, Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC) announced on Monday in Abuja said the e-auction platform would make auctioning of goods seized by customs transparent. “Since my assumption of office as the CGC, suspension order was placed on the manual auction to give way to development of an electronic platform that will be secured, transparent, capable of increasing revenue, as well as, providing equal opportunities for all Nigerians who are interested in the process”, he said.
He said: “What we are doing today is in line with the guidelines of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA.” He said the upgrade of Customs to an electronic platform auctioning was still in line with the provision of the Section 167 (2) Cap C45 of the CEMA.
“The launching of the e-auction platform today (yesterday) marks complete departure from the manual process of the past that was opened to abuses,” Ali added.
The e-auction committee consisted of officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Standards Organization of Nigeria, and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control among others. Also, the portal has designated banks to ensure money accruing from the auction gets to the Central bank of Nigeria Treasury Single Account for transparency and accountability.
The auction committee has been directed to ensure that only proper pictures of the goods as well as detailed information about each are uploaded to avoid and misgiving adding that only interested members of the public with Tax identification number (TIN) from the Federal Inland Revenue Service would be able to bid in the e-auction process as the platform gives access to TIN holders only.
Interested persons should visit https:app.trade.gov.ng/eauction to bid for any goods of their choice.
