Investigations on Sunday revealed that 195 bidders have emerged winners of the recently launched e-auction of the Nigerian Custom Service (NCS).
We learnt from the Public Relations Officer, Mr. Joseph Attah in Abuja that “the first round produced 43, the second one produced 115, and in this third round 37 items were uploaded and also won. So, this is making a total of 195 winners so far.”
He also disclosed that 19 banks have hooked on to the e-auction wallet, which has now relieved the bidders of the itches they experienced in the beginning of the exercise when only Jaiz Bank participated in the process.
The bank fell into line after the Comptroller-General, Col. Hammed Ali (rtd) accused them of sabotaging the e-auction exercise even after their involvement in the acceptability test of the process.
Following the refusal of the banks to participate in the exercise, Jaiz Bank was the lone bank opened to the e-auction bidders. The bank was however overwhelmed as too many customs had recourse to it for the process.
Consequent upon the challenges in the bidding process, the frustrated applicants accused the NCS of engaging only Jaiz Bank for the e-auction in order to favour Muslims and northerners.
But 17 banks banks that on Tuesday explained to the Ali in Abuja that they were having technical challenges that hindered them from logging onto the e-auction, promising to oblige as soon as they triumph over their hiccups.
were battling bid for the auctioned items without to The banks refusal to participate in the exercise made the bidding process.
The Public Relations Officer however told The Nation in his office yesterday that “most of them have hooked up. They said they were experiencing some technical hitches with the interswitch which has been resolved. But I can confirm to you that as at today we have 19 banks in the platform.
“The import of this now is that interested bidders will now have options of banks to go to. They are free to choose any bank nearest to them that is in the platform to make their payment.”
