The Customs And Excise Management Amendment Act And Matters Arising Therefrom

The first Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) was enacted in 1954 and since then, there had been many amendments, but there have never been any comprehensive efforts to get a completely new set of laws for the Nigerian Customs Service, until 2013.
Apart from failure to enact a new law, government has however over the years, inaugurated committees and task forces to either review or restructure the service; the last being the one headed by former permanent secretary, federal ministry of finance, Mr Ochi Achinivu.
We recall that while inaugurating the committee, the then-minister of finance had observed that: “The Customs that we need is not one that not only does its job professionally, but also lives up to its billing as the prime agency at the nation’s ports, by actively seeking solutions to the challenges that port users face and advising government proactively on them. “We can’t afford to keep losing trade and revenue to neighbouring countries as we currently do.”
“The Customs has been rated low in the area of trade facilitation. It has been blamed for obstructing free flow of trade into and out of Nigeria. There is definitely room for improvement and there are still some officers and men that give the service a bad name”.
With this, the minister gave the Achinivu group the matching orders to turn the Nigeria Customs Service around and the committee immediately turned itself to another superintending agency over the Nigeria Customs Service.
Before the Achinivu committee, there had been attempts to restructure the Customs. There was the Finance Minister Esther Nenadi Usman committee which led to the emergence of Jacob Gyang Buba as the Comptroller General of Customs; taking over from Alhaji Ahmed Mustapha who also at one time was member of a Task Force to restructure the same Customs service.
The Task Force which is an all-Customs affair was actually headed by Dr Bello Mohammed who was the sixth chief executive of the same Nigeria Customs Service (between 1988 and 1994).
Although the task force had two years within which it was expected to have put the Service back on the track in the quest to modernize reform, reorganise and refocus it, it was roundly condemned as a having failed in this mandate.
This probably led to the creation of Achinivu panel which drew it membership from across stakeholders; including a retired senior Customs officer, a frontline licensed customs agent and a maritime lawyer; among others.
It is this committee that is credited with initial efforts aimed reenacting and reviewing the Customs and Excise Management Act.
We recall that at the peak of the lobby to pass the CEMA, during the tenure of the immediate past Minister of Finance; Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, it became obvious that the Bill wouldn’t sail through, owing largely to the sharp disagreement between her and the then-CG of Customs; Dikko Abdulahi Inde.
While the leadership of the Nigeria Customs Service wanted a new look Customs that will enjoy the autonomy that it had always craved for, the Minister insisted that the Service can not operate outside the nation’s fiscal policy.
While it may be true that the Customs deserves a lot more say in its affairs, one is at loss as to why the Customs is desirous of removing the influence of the minister of finance from its neck and whittle down the Minister’s influence. A clear evidence of that is the clause that categorically confers the power to engage service providers on the Comptroller General of Customs.
There are so many areas of contention in the Bill, and this was recently confirmed by the Customs image maker; Mr Wale Adeniyi. He hinted that the Service is already working in the contentious areas.
Apart from the areas that have to do with the powers of the Minister, one area that maritime industry stakeholders need to focus their attention on is the rivalry with the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Act.
Now that efforts are being made to enact a more acceptable CEMA, it should be drafted with CRFFN Act in mind so as to remove the conflict of freight forwarding and licensed customs clearing; a development which has been prominent since the CRFFN Act came into effect in 2007.
We strongly advise that CEMA and CRFFF should play complimentary roles and not antagonize each other. It is worrisome that the document which is being worked on does not take cognizance of the existence of CRFFN.
As much as a new CEMA is desirable and long overdue, its success or otherwise will depend on its being realistic about the existence and importance of the CRFFN Act; which is also a law which the Nigerian National Assembly enacted to promote integrity and best practices in freight forwarding; an integral part of which licensed customs clearing is.