Customs to commence next batch of E-auction bidding Monday

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) will commence the next batch of another 48 hours of bidding on July 10 as the e-auction committee reloads the portal with more items, NAN reports.

Joseph Attah, NSC Public Relations Officer, according to NAN said the announcement of the 43 winners that emerged after the 48 hours of bidding ended the first batch.

Following the end of the first bidding batch, the e-auction committee would reload the portal with more items for the next batch, he said Thursday in Abuja.

“Every batch lasts for 48 hours, the first 48 hours lapsed at noon on Wednesday. The system completely locked everybody out, and then presented a report and automatically sent mails to all the winners.

“The next batch of bidding will commerce on Monday July 10, for another round of 48 hours bidding.

“The next batch hopefully will be better as other hitches earlier experienced in the first batch of  282 registered bidders would have been addressed.

“Hopefully, more banks would have been on board by Monday,’’ Attah said.

He said out of the said figure, 268 bidders were enabled, while 245 were able to generate e-wallet access.

The NCS spokesman said that bidders that were able to recharge their e-wallet, paying the N1,000 administrative fee) were 68, as the wide gap between the 245 e-wallet access and the 68 bidders who were able to recharge was due to a challenge with the banks.

It was reported that Col. Hameed Ali rtd., the Comptroller-General of Customs had on Monday in Abuja inaugurated the e-auction platform aimed at giving all Nigerians equal opportunities to purchase seized items, including vehicles.

The process which is being done through bidding on the e-auction platform is also aimed at increasing Customs’ revenue generation.

In the first batch of bidding, some Nigerians interested in participating in the e-auction, complained of difficulty in accessing the platform since July 3, when it was inaugurated.