By Kenneth Jukpor
Hadjia Bola Muse is the President of Women in ANLCA (Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents) and Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Bomarah Investment Limited. In this interview with MMS Plus she highlights the modest achievements of the budding group and reveals plans to increase the number of women in freight forwarding. Bola Muse also discusses several pertinent port sector issues. Enjoy it. Excerpts:
How has Women in ANLCA been able to grow into a force in the freight forwarding industry?
You know that we are still babies. We are just trying to learn how to crawl before walking and growing but we thank God for the journey so far. Our National President, Mr. Olayiwola Shittu has been very cooperative and the women in the association are moving forward as a result of his massive support. We thank God we are moving one step at a time. When I look back to how we started, I am satisfied that we have been able to achieve a lot and I am proud of myself.
Now that you are recognized, what are the things that you want the association to achieve with regards mentoring and others initiatives?
One thing that I really want Women in ANLCA to do is to assist each other by coming under one umbrella. Thank God we are being recognized now unlike before when women were not recognized. Now our president invites us for programmes at the national level. As part of this recognition, we have been able to rise to a level where we now have a Special Assistant to the ANLCA National President on Women Affairs. These are some of the things we have been able to achieve so far.
I have also been able to register women who belong to other maritime industries so that we can learn how things are being done in other climes and utilize them. So we are still growing and I know we would be doing greater things in no distant time and the freight forwarding practice in Nigeria is set for greater heights with the influx of women.
Freight forwarding is still seen as men’s profession, what is your group doing to bring more women into the freight forwarding business?
That is the reason we are coming up at such a time as this. We are beginning to have more women in freight forwarding. However, the primary essence of the group is to ensure that there is an influx of women into the profession. In the past, people had the impression that this business belongs to men alone (it was regarded as men’s affairs). We are letting the women know that such assertion is unfounded and we are showing them the enormous opportunities in freight forwarding.
I am the only woman in my company, all the other workers are men. But we are encouraging more women to come out and join this industry. This industry is for both genders and it provides a platform for women to showcase their abilities to the world.
How would you advise young women aspiring coming into the industry?
I always advise them to look inwards and know within themselves that they would be successful in this industry because it is not a child’s play. The profession requires you to be truthful, honest and uphold high degree of integrity. You have to be able to stand for yourself in case you have no one to lean on. Be yourself and desist from uneven and unproductive competitions.
Freight forwarders, agents are clamoring for some things, especially with recent strike actions to press home their demands. What’s your take on this?
You know we (freight forwarders and agents) belong to the same industry. We are in a system where the government wouldn’t listen until you shout, strike, demonstrate, etc., but we pray to God for the best. The government has promised to resolve the bottlenecks that impede our operations at the nation’s ports. These challenges range from corruption to the state of the port infrastructure especially the port access roads.
Recently, a container laden with 440 pump-action rifles was found in Tin Can ports, what would you say about port security?
These are some of the problems we are fighting to stop. I don’t know why such things continue to happen at our ports. I just heard it now but who knows, it might not be the military guns, it might be hunter guns or worse it could be for the militia or the Boko Haram insurgents. I don’t want to talk on that because I don’t know the details, but don’t forget we are in Nigeria where when a little thing happens it gets exaggerated before investigations.
How is Women in ANLCA planning to give back to the society?
What we are doing now is mending our own first before we go out to fix societal issues. Some of us have taken up Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) but we did so individually. However, we can do much more as a group but I really want us to develop ourselves before we will be able to start contributing immensely to societal development. A lot of things are in the pipeline for Women in ANLCA because we want to go into mentoring, assisting and lots of things but these are things we can only achieve after putting our house together.
How would you appraise the transport sector, is there anything that needs to be changed?
There is a lot that has to be changed in this industry but I would also canvass for stakeholders to start by changing their approach to business at the ports and their mindset about maximizing profit at the expense of the government’s revenue and national security.
This industry needs to be sanitized. We have to understand ourselves better. The transporters are very lawless. It is only in Nigeria that our roads are being abused everyday by the users without fear. The trucks block the roads without fear. We must learn to obey laws. People should not behave as if they are above the law and even a way that looks like the country belongs to them alone.
The Federal Government should also show concern and take necessary steps to revamp the transport infrastructure. The development of the roads, railways, inland waterways and Inland Container Depots (ICD) would lead to steady increase in the nation’s economy as people can easily convey their goods from one part of the country to another for sale or for export.
