There are indications that the Nigeria Customs Service is set to commence the training of members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA), a development which has however drawn the ire of other associations .
In a letter which was circulated by Customs headquarters last week, the service stressed that in line with what is obtainable with Custom brokers in other countries, the training is strictly for license owners.
There are indications that the Nigeria Customs Service is set to commence the training of members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA), a development which has however drawn the ire of other associations .
In a letter which was circulated by Customs headquarters last week, the service stressed that in line with what is obtainable with Custom brokers in other countries, the training is strictly for license owners.
Shipping Position Daily gathered that the training kicks off next week and the certificate issued at the end of the raining will serve as requisite for the renewing of practicing licenses.
Surprisingly, the opportunity was not extended to the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and the other three associations namely; the National Council of Managing Directors of License Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders (AREFFN) and the NAFFAC.
The ANLCA permanent secretariat alongside two of his chapters; that is, Murtala Muhammed airport and Onne chapters have also been selected by the Nigeria Customs Service as part of the training centres. The other centers include Customs training school at Ikeja Lagos and Gwagwalada in Abuja, as well as Kano.
Confirming this in Lagos on Tuesday, National President of ANLCA; Prince Olayiwola Shittu said that Customs has contracted a private consultant with offices in the United Kingdom to take the training of Customs brokers under the aegis of ANLCA free of charge.
Shipping Position Daily also gathered that customs will use the certificate obtained from the training to issue passwords to agents who are chief executive officers of their registered companies. The programme seeks to place the liability about each license at the door steps of the owners, especially as it concerns hacking of passwords.
Speaking on the development, the ANLCA President, said that, “ANLCA is the only private place where they are going to handle this training, and we have been working closely with the consultants for the past three months, they already have a list of all our members who are licensed".
"Those who are licensed but are not members of ANLCA will have to wait until we have gotten our own password, this is the advantage of being a member of ANLCA", Shittu boasted.
Apart from this, Shittu hinted that starting from next week, training equipment ordered exclusively by ANLCA will be arriving from the UK.
"As soon as the equipment are here, we will have all bonafide members on whom we have done our biometrics to get themselves ready and come and receive training" he added.
He reiterated that the programme is compulsory for all ANLCA members because the certificate issued will be the pre-requisite for agents to renew their licenses.
According to him, the training is very important to the vision of ANLCA and nobody is too old to be trained.
"Your license will not be renewed until you go through this programme and it is going to be a continuous thing"
"At a starting point, it is going to be one director of a license and two others, it is only that director that will be given the password in other for us to do e-uploading on the customs server", he disclosed.
According to him,, with the e-transaction, customs brokers can do their business anywhere in the world.
But, when he was contacted by our correspondent, President Association of Registered Freight Forwarders (AREFFN) Dr. Frank Ukor accused the Customs Comptroller General of deliberately trying to sabotage other associations, in preference for ANLCA.
Ukor said that AREFFN also has members who operate with customs licenses that could benefit from the training, but the association was never contacted.
Speaking further on the issue, he said, "you know what Dikko (Customs CG) has been doing, he has been against us because we tell him the truth"
"We have members with licenses that we can send to the training, but he doesn't want us, but don't worry, the government wants us".
Also speaking with our correspondent via telephone yesterday, National Secretary of NAGAFF; Mr. Increase Uche said that it will be a big mistake on the part of customs if it chooses to train only ANLCA members.
According to him, NAGAFF members also own and control licenses and that Customs should have made the programme more holistic.
"I don't know the basis for the training, as a NAGAFF member I am also licensed, I think this should be done holistically and it will be a mistake on the part of customs if it decides to do only ANLCA" Uche stated.
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