The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), has expressed displeasure over the new N35 billion weekly target of Customs which can only be generated through cargo clearance processes at the ports that many have adjudged as the most expensive in the world.
Speaking to MMS plus, the President of the association, Prince Olayinwola Shittu averred that ANLCA is waiting for Customs to show the direction where these money will come from as already the new stringent government auto policy and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy is pinching hard.
According to him, “many of our members who have clients that used to import 3 to 5 times a year are beginning to see that their clients do not import as much as before, so the rate of importation is very low and some are in the job market to seek alternative source of income, but President Mohammadu Buhari has assured us that it will be difficult for a while before it gets better. So that is why we are patient”.
On the introduction of Electronic Certificates by Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Shittu said, “SON has unveiled its own internet based on-line transaction like it has never been done before. When we made the government to get them out of the ports, it was deliberate, that is why they had to sit down and think out the plan to go online since they are no longer allowed in the ports.
“Now their process is simplified, if we did not send them out of the ports, they will not have come up with a method of enhancing their operations, so, it is a welcome development. He added.
Meanwhile, when the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Ports and Terminal Multi-services Limited (PTML), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr. Steve Okomah was contacted, he stated that some factors militated against the revenue generation of the service.
According to him, “some of the factors that affected revenue this year includes the national elections, inauguration and don’t forget at the background we have the issue of auto policy, with all these the cargo throughput has dropped, recently we have the CBN directive, all this has affected throughput and it is yet to picked up but we are seeing signs that it might pick up. This time last year revenue was higher still we cannot compare cargo throughput now with this time last year because last year Nigeria was stable.”
Speaking further Okamah said “For PTML we do not allow leadership to be the premise for doing our job, it does not really matter who ever that is there, we do our job like it is supposed to be done no matter the directive or who is at the top.”
