By Kenneth Jukpor
The National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu has pointed out corrupt practices as the reason most Customs agents in the country turn millionaires speedily.
Shittu, who was speaking during his visit to the MMS International Image Centre at the maiden edition of MMS CEOs Roundtable lamented that the level of hardship in the country coupled with agents’ greed have forced many agents into accepting illicit deals as their fate.
Although Shittu called on agents to be patriotic and prioritize national interest and the safety and security of Nigerians, he expressed worry that the tough economic times and disposition of Customs officers make the unpleasant trend difficult to change.
Explaining the unfortunate fate of agents, Shittu said, “Today, the importer dictates how much he is going to pay the agent to get his goods out of the ports. This isn’t the ideal practice because the agent should be in position to explain the cost as well as the procedures. But many agents are hungry, they have licenses but there are no jobs so they accept the importers offer”
Shittu noted that most agents in such cases aren’t aware of the content of the container until the container is placed for examination, a problem he also attributed to importers who lie to agents about the actual content most times.
“Sometimes the importer could tell you that some other agent had agreed to collect N2million and you are forced to agree N1.8million. the agent most times collects this money and initially goes to solve his personal financial problems before he realizes that even the N1.8million wouldn’t have been sufficient to clear the container. That is why you hear about containers flying out of the port; so if somebody is lucky to have 50 containers at the ports and he succeeds with the syndicates at the ports to clear the goods with little or no fees, why wouldn’t he become a multimillionaire overnight” Shittu said.
He added that most of the clearing agents and freight forwarders in the country were beneficiaries of these corrupt practices, as they are more willing to settle every officer that comes their way than pay the correct duty.
Also speaking on the controversy surrounding the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Shittu said the Council was quiet because they were waiting for his tenure to expire so that the next President could be lobbied to withdraw the court case instituted by ANLCA.
He expressed worry that one of the Presidential aspirants at the association had promised to give out $2,000 per individual just to get their votes.
He posited that the crux of the problems at CRFFN is betrayal of trust, complaining that all associations had sat together to draft an agreement but selfish interest had prevented the associations from making headway on the issue of POF collection.
Explaining the best way he provided to resolve the POF collection saga, he revealed that he had told the CRFFN Registrar, Sir. MIKE Jukwe that profiling of associations should be done to ascertain the number of licenses in each association.
“I suggested that the results from the profiling determine how each association is paid, thus each association gets a share according to its strength. We could do the profiling bi-annually because some members of an association may decide to move to another. This was a viable option but the NAGAFF Founder, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam said no. He knew that if a profiling was done, majority would be in ANLCA and he wanted the sharing to be equal” Shittu added.
He also pledged to work for the attainments of one- stop -shop cargo clearance in the ports and border stations as well as to ensure that no interventions is carried out by any agencies outside the ports while reducing excessive Alerts, especially from the government and security agencies.
Shittu frowned at the fact that Iju was returning to the same association he referred to as insignificant while he was superior as CRFFN Chairman. He revealed that members of ANLCA were asking why Iju has decided to come down to be President of ANLCA after mocking the association.
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