A group of freight agents, under the aegis of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), has lamented the exclusion of customs brokers and freight forwarders from the National Single Window (NSW) Committee.
The group which made this observation on Tuesday, noted that licensed Customs agents and freight forwarders should be members of the Single Window committee as NSW primarily affects their profession.
Meanwhile, they assured members of the association and the freight forwarding community at large that federal government agencies will be engaged to correct the omission.
During a meeting in Lagos yesterday, the Group of 9 who are soliciting for votes into the ANLCA Board of Trustees, equally promised to engage the federal government for an urgent upward review of the existing yearly renew of Licensed Customs Agents.
Addressing members of the ANLCA Western zone, Alhaji Dayo Azeez, Adeola Mummuney and Segun Awonuga said the significance of having a harmonious and diligent national leadership and the board of ANLCA cannot be over-emphasized, especially at a time the association concludes a long drawn crisis.
While asking for members of the zone’s support and vote in the upcoming board election slated to hold within the month, the group responded to concerns raised by members and reassured that all areas of conflicts will be carefully resolved.
“Our group has noted your complaints that our license renewal is the costliest compared to other professions like the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), etc. This group will take this up with the management of the Nigerian Customs Service and hopefully, will persuade the authority to raise it up to 3 year tenure rather than the yearly routine.”
“We hope to also look at the prospect of negotiating the reduction of the amount, government is looking for money from all angle but the beast of burden must not be killed on account of more and more money. We want to assure you that we will cross the bridge when we get there.” Azeez said.
On his part, Adeola Mummuney said some of the serious challenges plaguing customs agents will disappear when the practice is fully professionalized, noting that it will also open up greater opportunities for practitioners.
“ANLCA has been around for a long time but have not gotten to the height we should be as a profession, so a lot of things need to be done. We have said that top on the list is to professionalize our practice, our clients and people we service must have trust in us. It is because they don’t trust us enough that we are having issues and challenges,” he remarked.
Also speaking, Alhaji Awonuga observed that the lack of synergy and leadership among freight agents is making freight forwarding practice too complex and cumbersome.
His words: “In this industry if we are not careful it will take a whole week to clear a container. The reason is because we are not organized, so we need to professionalize. To do that we need to act as a collective, and to be a collective we need a board and an executive that is united to lead the process.”
“When this one is fighting the other, our problems will never go away and that is why we have come together as like minds to say we want your vote to be on the ANLCA board. We want to give ANLCA NECOM the right support to perform and get things done. If there is no peace at the leadership level, we will continue to cry.”
Members of the Group of 9 are; Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha, Kingsley Offor, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Utai, Chief Ernest Elochukwu, Adeola Mummuney, Chief Sunday Momoh, Chief Dayo Azeez, Tunde Awonuga and Chief Dennis Okafor.
