• President Says NAFFAC Is 'Old Men’s Platform'
• Backs Transport Minister On Ban Of Illegal Dues Collection
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) on Monday debunked allegations by another freight forwarding association regarding its actual year of creation and incorporation.
• President Says NAFFAC Is 'Old Men’s Platform'
• Backs Transport Minister On Ban Of Illegal Dues Collection
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) on Monday debunked allegations by another freight forwarding association regarding its actual year of creation and incorporation.
The association’s national president; Prince Olayiwola Shittu, who announced that ANLCA is now 59 years old, also condemned the mastermind of the allegation; National Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC) describing the group as an 'old men’s platform'.
The Association has equally supported the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar on his directives that associations should stop the collection of dues within port premises.
Speaking at a press briefing to mark the anniversary at the association's national secretariat in Lagos, ANLCA President; said that the association has justified its existence and that it had not derailed from promoting best practices in custom brokerage as well as enhancement of members welfare.
Shittu stressed that despite the fact that several splinter associations had come out of ANLCA, it remained focused and committed to the ideals of its founding fathers.
"In spite of various tribulations associated with a growing institution and in spite of the establishment of other associations that had broken away from ANLCA at one time or the other, we have remained focused and committed to the ideals of the founding fathers as well as the core values of respect to constituted authority, advocacy of the profession, welfare of members, training and capacity building" he said.
While clarifying the date of establishment of ANLCA, Shittu said that the association was founded under the ILLITERATE PROTECTION ACT CAP 83 of 1954 with certificate number 38799 of 30th Sept, 1954.
He said that the association name was only changed when it registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) which ANLCA predates. According to him, the government had mandated that all existing organizations must register with the CAC and this does not change their year of existence.
"If you have a child, after he is grown, you gave him a name, and you went to baptize the child, definitely the church will give another name, does that make your child not to exist from when he was born?"
"We refused to make any response because where it came out from was NAFFAC, they are consolidators, they are people who are benefiting without any efforts, they are representatives of freight forwarders who gives them Bill of Laden to distribute to the owners and they charge a fee for it, they are old men platform" Shittu said.
Speaking on the ban imposed by the Minister of Transport on dues collection within the nation’s seaports, the ANLCA president said that the association had never forced its members to pay dues and that it does not engage in any illegal operations.
"It is not right for an association to say that unless they stay inside the ports before they can be collecting money, we have been saying it for so long, at the national level we are not in support of collection of money inside the port"
"We do not have anybody chasing anyone to collect any money, we have even designed a better means for our people where they pay their dues yearly for the purpose of running the affairs of the association"
"But there are ad hoc arrangements made by chapters and their members in order to handle their welfare, there is no general declaration that this is where ANLCA will be collecting money, chapters made their individual arrangements" Shittu said.
“ANLCA has never at any time forced members to collect money from them and we have continually said that we don’t do illegal operations.
“Collection of dues from members predates the present leadership and I can tell you that our members have never at any time raise eyebrows over collection,” said the president.
He said that it was unprofessional for an association to collect monies inside the port and that they had rather introduced an approach agreed by members for collection of dues.
“The monies being collected were approved by our members at our town-hall meeting in 2010 and 2011 when they voluntarily agreed to contribute money from their pockets to sustain the association.
“Membership dues are paid yearly for the purposes of running the associations, but chapters made their individual adhoc arrangements.
Shittu prided ANLCA for being the mother of other freight forwarding associations, in his words, "ANLCA has given birth to many Presidents of other associations, and a task force chairman in ANLCA is better than deputy president of other associations"
The ANLCA national president also said that it had developed a local software to enable it work according to international best practice.
He stated that the software would help to check fraud associated with cargo clearance.
“ANLCA will present this software to the government in Abuja on Thursday and it will help to check fraud.
“Most of the frauds emanate from the cyber cafes where people generate passwords of Customs Officers, which they use to fly containers,’’ he said.
Shittu said that while this development meant security for genuine licensed customs agents, it would automatically be the way out for those who had been involved in illegal activities.
“This means better security and it will enable us work seamlessly by e-transaction, using our biometric cards and it will show the illegal ones the way out,” Shittu said.
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