The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has promised to pursue a Bill at the National Assembly to restrict foreigners from partaking in clearing and forwarding business in Nigeria.
President of the association; Prince Olayiwola Shittu stated this yesterday when he appeared as a guest at the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) secretariat in Apapa Lagos.
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has promised to pursue a Bill at the National Assembly to restrict foreigners from partaking in clearing and forwarding business in Nigeria.
President of the association; Prince Olayiwola Shittu stated this yesterday when he appeared as a guest at the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) secretariat in Apapa Lagos.
Shittu equally called on the management of the Nigeria Customs Service not to consider issuance of clearing licenses to individuals as it is being advocated by some freight forwarding associations, saying that this can only lead to chaos in the system.
The ANLCA boss assured that his association is already championing a Bill at the House of Representatives to ensure that Local Content is enforced in the customs brokerage practice.
He pointed out that already, the association has one of its members; Hon. Ossy Prestige in the green chamber of the National Assembly, even as he revealed that ANLCA will also be consulting with Senator Ali Wakili, former Comptroller of Customs, in order to push the Bill at the Upper chamber.
He said: "We are privilege to have our member as honorable member of the House of Representatives, Honorable Ossy Prestige, he is going to champion that in the House, we also have Alhaji Wakili at the Senate, we are working through them now, it is going to be easy to facilitate such bills now"
"ANLCA has been battling it alone, we have made representation, and what we needed was to have a private bill into the National Assembly, and when we cross-check with consultants, they said it will cost us N600million".
Shittu lampooned the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) for not living up to its responsibilities, especially in protecting the interest of freight forwarders.
Speaking further, he said: "This are the protectionist tendencies that should have been solved by CRFFN, because they belong to government, the Ministry of Transport could have also helped to sponsor that Bill like it is done all over the world"
"Those who are behind the foreigners are Nigerians fronting for them, I know we will get there and the only way we can get there is that things are already changing at the National Level"
"Local Content was supposed to affect Customs agents because most of the dangerous jobs ever done were implemented by foreigners who are aided and abetted by our leaders; this is why Nigeria's production of crude oil per barrel is the highest in the world"
Shittu however said that his association is not entirely against the collection of the controversial Practitioners Operations Fee (POF) but that she is only insisting that the right thing must be done.
"If collecting POF will enable us to put aside something that will be used to pursue the Bill, ANLCA will be ready, but give unto Ceaser what belongs to Ceaser" he disclosed.
Shittu however insisted that ANLCA should have a larger chunk of the POF because, according to him, those that will pay the money are owners of licenses and ANLCA members are the license owners.
He reiterated that individuals in freight forwarding business have no business hanging around the port and constituting a nuisance.
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