· Freight agents ponder approach to lobby National Assembly
· POF can serve as viable incentive – NAGAFF
· Techpreneurs jettison Nigeria following DSS, Police harassment
By Kenneth Jukpor
In order to dissipate the pangs of unemployment in the nation, the Ministry of Labour and Productivity has endorsed Nigerian freight forwarders’ clamour for tax waivers following their immense contribution to employment generation in the country.
Convinced by the enormous potentials of freight forwarding practice to absorb millions of teeming unemployed youths, the Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige gave this indication even as he encouraged freight agents to approach the National Assembly to get tax waivers that would further enable them provide massive employment.
With Nigeria’s unemployment rate of about 23.1%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Labour Minister appears to be willing to support any initiative that would correct the unpalatable unemployment ratio which becomes more frightening when combined with underemployment rate at 20.1%.
When combined, Nigeria’s unemployment and underemployment rate is currently at 43.3% which amounts to over 50million Nigerians, therefore the government may not be able to provide sufficient jobs without creating an enabling environment that empowers private sector to take up the onus of employment.
The President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Mr. Tony Iju Nwabunike revealed this rapport with the Labour Minister last week, even as he noted that the freight forwarding association had plans to approach the National Assembly to work out tax waivers for the practitioners.
The ANLCA boss said; “Freight forwarders are looking out for opportunities to get tax waivers. We are considering lobbying the National Assembly to get tax waivers because we are creating huge employment which is in line with the Federal Government agenda”
Nwabunike who was speaking with journalists under the aegis of Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN), stressed that all licensed Customs agents are first licensed as Customs freight forwarding companies that have some level of employment and people working under the company.
The ANLCA boss who lamented the enormous taxation facing freight forwarders, told MMS Plus, “We are creating employment so we do need the federal government to give us tax waivers on some areas so that we can augment this tax issue with provision of employment. I have discussed this with the Minister of Labour and Productivity Dr. Chris Ngige and he agreed that I was making a good point. I am looking forward to see how we can bring down taxation via these waivers”
Similarly, the National Public Relations Officer, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Mr. Stanley Ezenga shared corresponding views during a chat with MMS Plus, as he opined that such tax waivers would be a commendable development.
The NAGAFF spokesperson stated that in other countries freight forwarders enjoy incentives from the government; however, he observed that the Practitioners Operating Fees (POF) was one of the incentives which could dissipate the economic pangs facing freight forwarders in the country.
“While NAGAFF would welcome any form of incentives or tax waivers for freight forwarders, I would like to state that there has always been incentive. The problem has been that respective governments have refused to apply these incentives. Another challenge is that the freight forwarders don’t have one umbrella or association to push for this. This disunity has made the government to relax as we are unable to agree to kick against this” he told MMS Plus.
Ezenga recalled that there were provisions for 1% of customs duty generated by freight forwarders in old Customs laws.
“As you assess duty for payment, there ought to payment a percentage of that duty that should be accrued to the freight forwarder. In the old Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) it was 1% but I don’t think that clause is still there in the new CEMA. The biggest challenge is that freight forwarders influence has been quickened by disunity and strategic efforts of government agencies like the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS)” he said.
Meanwhile, he expressed confidence that the new development at the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) and the planned collection of POF is another platform to claim incentives for freight forwarders.
“Recall that the primary aim of POF is for capacity building. Government has realized that majority of law breakers are those ignorant of the law even though ignorance isn’t an excuse in law. Most people have consistently flouted the law out of ignorance. With the collection of POF, CRFFN would be empowered to train freight forwarders so they don’t act out of ignorance” he added.
In another development, techpreneurs in Nigeria are jettisoning the country at an alarming rate following the high rate of harassment, intimidation and arrests by officers of the Department of State Security service (DSS) and the Nigerian Police.
This unprofessional practice has been tipped to see Nigeria lose most of its brainy techpreneurs in the near future as a result of the harassment meted on young Nigerians moving about with laptops by overzealous security officers.
With digitalization and innovation dictating national development across the globe, techpreneurs hold the key to successfully leverage high-end technology and advanced business practices to reinvent and reshape the society with technology, yet Nigeria is losing its best brains.
Narrating his ordeal, the Founder of FarmCrowdy, Mr. Onyeka Akumah told MMS Plus, “On a particular afternoon I was driving home from work and the distance between my office and my house is seven minutes. Three minutes into my drive I was stopped by security operatives and they demanded to go through all my details on my phone and my laptop. I was fortunate that they saw a picture of me and the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo when he visited my office”
“At that point they began to re-arrange my things and asked me to explain what kind of work I was into. I had to explain that I was a programmer and also give examples of some of the things I had done in the past. I spent over fifteen minutes there before I left. What was sad about this was that less than one month after my incident, two of my staff were stopped by similar agencies. One of the difficult things for techpreneurs today is carrying their bags containing laptops from one point to another. We need an enabling environment because some of Nigeria’s best developers are getting jobs overseas and leaving because of these challenges” he said.
Meanwhile, worried by the high level such complaints in Lagos, the Lagos State Governor Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said that the State Government is concluding plans to host the leadership of the Nigerian Police Force to engage them on these issues.
“We intend to have a strategic meeting with the leadership of the Nigerian Police here in Lagos and we would bring up this issue because the officers have to know that laptops are tools that legitimate people use to work. The entire leadership of the Nigerian Police Force would be in Lagos for two or three days. We would discuss this and I am hopeful that by the end of our discourse these challenges would be a thing of the past” Sanwo-Olu assured.
