For about 19 hours yesterday, many Nigerians and prospective bidders of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) electronic auction (e-auction) programme were disappointed as the online page refused to come up live.

The NCS had picked July 1, 2017 for the official commencement of the e-auction programme, which has witnessed several criticisms. Yesterday, the official website for the auction process -www.trade.gov.ng/e-auction- failed to come alive. The page, an official page for the Federal Government’s single window for trade, only displayed ‘not found’ when attempts to access it were made.

Public Relations Officer of the NCS, Jerry Attah, confirmed to The Guardian that the service had challenges with the system, but assured that all hands were on deck to float the webpage.

“I have been in the situation room to examine the development. I do understand that it is one of those things. I have been in the ICT department and it is just been confirmed to me now that the page will open any moment from now. People will begin to view certain things much later tomorrow (today),” he said.

After about 19 hours of confusion, Attah made available another webpage (https:app.trade.gov.ng/eauction) to The Guardian, but could not confirm if the service is changing the portal from the earlier published webpage.

The Guardian monitoring of the portal revealed that the page was latter updated to a new web page on its portal, through Facebook to direct bidders to the auction page. The Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), is expected to formally lunch the e-auction platform on tomorrow. (The Guardian)