Mr Humphrey Okwuosa is the Apapa Chapter Secretary of the National Council of Managing Directors and Licensed Customs Agents. In this interview with Joshua Yousouph, he talks about freight forwarding and issues surrounding the practice. He also has advice for the new Customs Comptroller General; Adewale Adeniyi
For the purpose of this interview, can you introduce yourself sir?
My name is Humphrey Okwuosa. I am the Apapa Secretary of National Council of Managing Directors and Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) and Public Relations Officer of The Patriots Anti-Corruption Initiative (T-PACI). I am a maritime consultant and I have been in the business for a few years now and it has been a wonderful experience. Despite the changes in the industry, it has been interesting.
One of the major issues freight forwarders are going through now is the issue of unified exchange rate. What is your take on this?
The unified exchange rate is a good policy. To start with, it will close the gap between some rich government officials that use to trade in foreign exchange. They will go and get the Dollars at N420 per Dollar which was the official rate and they will go out and sell it at N750, sitting in the comfort of their house to make billions without doing anything. However, with this unified exchange rate; it may be hard at the starting point, but at the end of the day, it will give everybody a level playing ground. There will be no more governmental advantage to any individual. It will invariably affect the import business and affect the price of things. But the only thing it will do if it persist is that it will enable importers to plan and know what they are looking out for. Unlike before when people with governmental advantage get it at the rate of N420 and others got theirs at the rate of N750 and they will come to the same market to struggle with each other. But with what it is now, it will give everybody a general playing ground. You know what it is; you cost your items, forecast your items and you know what it is. As I said, initially it may be painful but at the long run, I think it is a good policy.
We observed that CRFFN has been collecting this POF from freight forwarders for about two years now but some stakeholders said there is no dividend since they started paying. What is your take about this sir?
Speaking on the issue of POF by CRFFN, the issue on ground is that we are in a court with them. The National Council of Managing Directors and Licensed Customs Agents is in court with them to stop that collection, because it is illegal. To start with, the Act that created them was wrong.
The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria is under the Ministry of Transportation. They are not under the Ministry of Finance. Custom licensed agents are under Ministry of Finance. We are not under Ministry of Transportation. So if such a thing has to be done, they have to go back to the drawing board and pull them out from where they are to put them into the Ministry of Finance where they can have something to do with Customs licensed agents. Otherwise, it is meant for the Ministry of Transportation.
The issue of paying money, paying some money such as N1,000 or N2,000 and the likes has not been of any benefit to any agent or association. Presently, the association which I represent and serve as the Apapa Chapter Secretary is currently in court with them. So we don’t pay. National Council members don’t pay POF because we are in a court with the CRFFN and there is a court injunction mandating them to stop it. We have a copy of the circular. We have an injunction from the court to stop it. Until the court decides, the status quo remains and no member of National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents will pay for now. ANLCA or NAGAFF may pay, I don’t know their interest. But for us, we are not paying.
But, CRFFN has got approval from the government for the collection of POF and the then Minister of Transportation has mandated all terminal operators to enforce the collection by hindering defaulters from cargo clearance. What’s your take on this?
It is wrong for the Minister for Transportation to get involved. This is because if CRFFN has to be under maritime industry and you know Customs is under Ministry of Finance, we are licensed customs agents. We are not freight forwarders. They are two different things between them. Freight forwarders include transport people, truck owners and others, so we are not them. We are directly under the Ministry of Finance. I am not aware of it because, we don’t follow it up. I’m not aware of this. But I know initially when they started, we tendered our court injunction to NPA. I think they adhered to it and they obliged us. They have not called us again to know what the next level of action will be. But there’s already a court injunction. You don’t pre-empt court cases; you don’t. The POF issue is already in the court with the National Council and the CRFFN. So there’s nothing we can do.
Recently, we heard that the government is planning to withdraw funding from professional Councils such as the CRFFN. How do you think CRFFN will be able to survive?
What have they been using the money government gave them to do? The people they represent don’t see the impact of it. Government is trying to cut down costs in order to give the people good governance. They ought not all to enjoy government subventions. ANLCA and NAGAFF don’t enjoy it. Although they (CRFFN) are a governing body, but what are they governing? What is their impact in the maritime industry? Customs wake up one day and they jack up duty. Shipping companies wake up one day and they increase their charges. What do they do if they regulate that body? We don’t see their impact. They don’t have impact. We don’t know what they do. What are they doing with the POF? They have never called stakeholders for seminars or trainings. Have you heard them call stakeholders for seminars? So what are they doing? You don’t once-in-a-while bring people you represent or regulate and update them on the nutrients in the maritime industry worldwide. Then what do they regulate? So why should government be wasting money? Why should they be giving them money? You see NIMASA once in a while contributes to the society and the industry from government funding. You see them do some community projects. We see them do a lot of things. But what is CRFFN doing? What do they do? They have no social services they render. If government funds you and you don’t return or render social services where you are, so what is the point? Look at the dilapidated state of the port. Look at how agents are being humiliated. What are they regulating? Look at how these terminal operators are extorting agents. They wake up one day and increase charges arbitrarily. If there is a server problem, you will pay for the demurrages, if there is a blockage, they don’t bear any cost. Then whose interest is the CRFFN protecting? So whether government withdraws their subvention or their allocation, we don’t feel they are part of what they do.
Let’s come to your association. We’ve heard insinuations and rumors regarding National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents having a splinter group. How true is this?
The National Council is one body. We don’t have any other President than Mr Lucky Amiwero. We don’t have any chapter other than the chapters instituted by him. There is no division or faction in the National Council. Whoever says that, is lying. We may have factions in ANLCA or other sister associations but in National Council, there is none. Nobody is contesting the Presidency of Mr Lucky Amiwero. National Council under Lucky Amiwero is the only association that has affected policy. He has a function in over 40 committees and several presidential committees changing policies. He is the one who introduced valuation in Nigeria. So we don’t have any faction in the National Council. Other associations might, but not in the National Council.
But we heard some members are aggrieved that Lucky Amiwero has been the President since inception of the association in 1996 and has refused to let go of the empire which led to their break-away.
To the best of my knowledge, Lucky Amiwero is a democratic president. Nobody is contesting the presidency with him. If tomorrow he sees any person that is capable to defend the ideals of the National Council, he will hand over to him. He has said many times that he wants to leave. We are the ones begging him. He has contributed immensely for the country. Anywhere you hear National Council, it is Lucky Amiwero. He is known in the Presidency, Senate, House of Assembly, Ministry of Finance and anywhere. He is not autocratic. He is not a dictator. He is not. If there is anybody today that is very sound and ready to defend the ideals and norms of nation’s maritime industry, he will hand over to him. He is the only man that never takes bribe from government. You cannot buy Amiwero, you cannot buy his conscience. He is only the defender of this industry. His name rings a bell where his name is mentioned anywhere. That’s why we are under him. He is an institution, and we are still learning. When we graduate, I know he will gladly change baton. But we are not complaining. Because nobody is yet fit to step into that position now.
We now have a new Acting Comptroller-General of Customs. What agenda will you set for him?
I would say total cleansing and harmonization of the departments in Customs. All these departments and units in Customs like FOU, Strike Force and Customs Police are duplication of functions and he has to harmonize them. There should be synergy among them. It’s very unfortunate that you clear your goods which were released by a Deputy Comptroller and on your way to the warehouse, an Inspector will stop it. There’s no respect. No matter where you are, you should respect hierarchy. But I’m happy he has been appointed. I learned that now he’s just trying to bring all these units like FOU, Strike Force and others under general duties. It will not be headed by another person. All these things will soon stop. He’s a seasoned officer. He knows the job. He knows the nitty-gritty of this job. We know that there will be a reformation in customs, good reformations that will bring respect, that will speed up the clearing chain again and will harmonize all these sections in the Customs such Valuations, CIU, Strike Force and all that will make the working system more professional.
How effective do you think the scanners are and what are your recommendations?
Gradually, Customs is going through e-commerce. They are on it now and there will be full implementation of e-commerce very soon. In fact, we are on it already. We don’t carry papers any longer like we did before. We make our payments in the bank, we go to the system, they release and we go. Speaking about scanners, we have scanners in the ports. But we don’t have enough for now and there are some manipulations on the scanners. Most of the job scanned must have one infraction or the other in order to extort agents or importers which ought not to be. We believe by the time we get to the full and optimal implementation of e-commerce, we will reduce some human interface. That’s the essence of it. You don’t need any human interface, you don’t need paper. Yes we have scanners but the job load is not much. The Customs can do the scan job that the terminal operators send to them to scan.
Customs don’t carry a container. When the job enters scan, it is the terminal operators that you represent that will take the container for Customs to scan. Sometimes scanners are empty and they are jobs to the scanned because the operators did not take the container to them to scan. Once you capture the job, they give you a link to do physical examination or scanning and once the scanning is booked, it is expected to be scanned a day. Sometimes you will see some scanning jobs not yet scanned for two, three days and they tell you that it has not been scanned. It’s not Customs because there is no container that gets to scanning base that Customs refuse to scan. But there is still room for improvement.
Stakeholders have complained about the dilapidated state of the quays walls at Tin Can port especially and also Port Harcourt port too. How should this be addressed?
It depends on the terms between the Nigeria Ports Authority, government and the terminal operators. The landlord of the port is NPA. The terminal operators are just tenants. Once their concession is over, they will go; except they want to renew it. If there is any decay in infrastructure, it is the work of the NPA and the government to look at it and repair, knowing that the maritime industry is second to the highest revenue generation in Nigeria presently. Most of the monies used by the government is coming from the maritime industry. So, any delay in repair will affect the generation of revenue in Nigeria. So if they can have an agreement with the terminal operators that they should do it and they will be refunded, this will be good. The government should look into this urgently because it is affecting facilitation of trade in the country. But importantly, we clearing agents are suffering. The examination bay here in Apapa port is horrible. We cannot do examination there. The place is very dusty and all these things are being caused by these manufacturing companies here. They are polluting the air. Agents die on a daily basis due to the fact that they go through a lot of stress. The stress is much because of the infrastructure decay. Sometimes they tell me the scanner is not working, sometimes they tell us the system is down, the server is not working and all. All these things affect the facilitation of trade. The government should look deeply at regulating all these through the Nigeria Shippers’ Council, NIMASA. They should look into these things critically. If these concessionaries can top up their service, there will be more jobs and it will be faster. You know what it took you to come here? It’s even better now. To load the container sometimes here takes two days. Why? This is pathetic.
