The Nigeria Customs Service has debunked insinuations that it is against the working of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), especially as it concerns relationship between the Council and freight forwarding practitioners.
Assistant Comptroller General of Customs; Mr. Charles Edike gave the clarification yesterday in Lagos while on a working visit to the National Headquarters, of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF).
Edike urged freight forwarders and customs brokers to liaise with the Presidency and National Assembly on review of licensing regulations.
The customs top brass urged the practitioners not to drag Customs into what he referred to as ‘politics’ emanating from the business of clearing and forwarding sub-sector of the maritime industry.
According to him, the Nigeria Customs service and CRFFN are agencies of the federal government, he noted that the service has no hand in the challenges that the CRFFN in its efforts to regulate the practitioners.
He added that CRFFN is an agency under the transport ministry and Customs is under the finance ministry, therefore both must not be seen to be having issues.
He further appealed to members of NAGAFF to meet with the National Assembly and the Presidency on how to review the CRFFN and CEMA Acts.
Meanwhile, apparently determined to boost its revenue drive, the ACG appealed to NAGAFF members to collaborate with the service for intelligence gathering and trade facilitation.
He added that support from NAGAFF will bring about seamless process in clearing of consignments from the ports, saying that the service will ensure that it collects the revenue set aside for it by government.
Edike however urged members of NAGAFF to be transparent when dealing with the customs, adding that customs will not tolerate any form of anomalies from the freight agents.
He said the collaboration between the Customs service and other stakeholders, especially freight forwarders, was necessary to improve on revenue and boost non-oil revenue of the Federal Government.
“These are indeed hard times. The price of crude oil is falling, so are imports declining. So the revenue focus is on non-oil, especially revenue from the Customs.
“We know that one hand cannot wash itself clean. It takes both hands to clean each other.
“That is why at this critical time, we are seeking the support of you freight forwarders to work with us to improve our revenue”, he appealed.
He said the service would need the collaboration of freight forwarders in the area of intelligence gathering, so as to ensure that every kobo that was due to government was paid.
Edike urged members of the association to report shady activities of unscrupulous customs personnel to the service for appropriate action.
He admonished NAGAFF members to always advise the Customs on how it could improve its service in the overall interest of port users and the nation.
The zonal coordinator said the service was exploring a number of ways to ensure freight forwarders had seamless operations at the ports.
On complaints about dysfunctional scanners, Edike regretted the situation, saying that the service was doing everything possible to ensure that the scanners were put to work again.
He said the Comptroller-General, Retired Col. Hameed Ali, had briefed the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, about the situation, expressing the hope that something would be done soon.
On his part, Founder of NAGAFF, Chief Boniface Aniebonam said that his association is always in strategic position to partner with the customs
Aniebonam added that the NAGAFF membership is based on individual practitioners.
He however expressed appreciation for the ACG visit to NAGAFF headquarters.
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