By Kenneth Jukpor
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) is set to engage the National Assembly as it steps up plans to establish a Chartered Institute of Customs Brokers in Nigeria.
The Institute would enable practitioners raise the level of professionalism with the availability of a charter as can be found in other parts of the world, according to the National President of ANLCA, Mr. Tony Iju Nwabunike.
Nwabunike who was speaking during a recent meeting with members of Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN), revealed that ANLCA had set up a national committee made up of professionals headed by its National Secretary, Alhaji Abdullazeez Mukaila on the issue.
Recall that the ANLCA boss had highlighted this as one of his lofty goals for the association in his manifesto two years ago.
“On the Institute of Customs Brokers, we have a national committee which has streamlined the processes. We are putting up a group of professionals headed by the National Secretary and we are taking this up with the National Assembly” he said.
Explaining the reasons behind the initiative he said, “We want to have the Institute of Customs Brokers and be certified because that is what obtains all over the world. Nigerian freight forwarders and Customs brokers are lagging behind, they can’t compete with their contemporaries because they aren’t certified, they aren’t trained”
Meanwhile, the ANLCA boss lamented that the federal government’s inclination to deepen taxation was hitting hard on the economy especially freight forwarders.
“Taxation is hitting hard on the people and the economy of the nation; but it isn’t just the taxes but the fact that people can’t see the gains and value of the taxation. Electricity is available or sufficient; the same problem is seen in water supply, state of the roads and other modes of transportation” he said.
Nwabunike who is also a director of Kaduna Inland Dry Port, was accompanied by the Managing Director of ICNL, Mr. Ismail Adekola Yusuf to the meeting as he lamented low patronage of the facility despite the government’s inclination to promote hinterland connectivity and cargo evacuation via dry ports.
The Kaduna IDP operations had projected to receive cargo from Apapa Port in Lagos, through the railway or by road and also export goods through the same channel. Nevertheless, it continues to suffer neglect by the Northern State Governments, Shipping Lines as well as neighboring importers in Niger Republic.
Nwabunike observed that the biggest challenge to the project was that the stakeholders anticipated to make the facility viable were yet to understand the operations and potentials of dry ports.
However, he also noted that the shipping lines have refused to issue the True Bill of Laden (TBL) to the facility because of logistics constraints as the infrastructure to transport cargoes from Apapa port to the hinterland was also a challenge.
He also urged the Northern State Governments to patronize the dry port with their project cargoes noting that they would be developing the host community of the dry port which such apt economic decision.
