Unity Bank Plc has announced the restoration of its services and readiness to collect customs duties from licensed customs agents and freight forwarders.
This comes after several days of system downtime, during which agents under the Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON) were unable to process payments for customs duties due to a server failure at the bank.
The issue, which began on September 2, 2024, caused significant delays and disruptions at ports and airports, leading to demurrage and rent charges on cargoes.Frank Ogunojemite, President of APFFLON, expressed frustration over the situation, noting that over N120 billion worth of cargoes were trapped, as agents were unable to switch banks due to customs regulations.
He stressed that the downtime was causing financial losses to freight forwarders, with demurrage continuing to accrue on the delayed cargoes.
Ogunojemite called on Unity Bank to compensate the affected agents for the losses incurred during the period of the system breakdown.
In response, Unity Bank’s Head of Corporate Communications, Matthew Obiazikwor, confirmed that the bank had completed its system upgrade and restored full service on all platforms.
He apologized for the inconvenience caused by the outage and reassured customers of the bank’s commitment to delivering exceptional service moving forward.
(Punch)