In this interview with Oluyinka Onigbinde, a former Acting National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents; Dr Kayode Farinto speaks extensively on Customs operations and the challenges facing the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria
Looking back at your time in ANLCA leadership, what do you consider your biggest achievement and your greatest regret?
In ANLCA leadership, our greatest achievement is advocacy. There was advocacy. Government, through our advocacy, listened and implemented amendments to policies that might not have gone down well with them. The only reason is that there was advocacy, and there was understanding, a robust understanding between our management team and many of the stakeholders. There was engagement. So there was advocacy. And the Media generally did wonderful work, when I was acting president. We had good media relations. That’s the only thing I can tell you.
Regret? I’m not a politician, so I don’t see any regrets. If I were to be a politician, I would tell you I have regrets. But I want to tell you, I never expected to have risen to that level—what I call Nigeria level in ANLCA. I saw myself just catapulted to a very vantage-sensitive position. You have to make decisions that affect the generality of agents. While I was making those decisions, a lot of people saw me as being too rigid. But now, events have proven me right. Most of the things we put in place then have fallen apart. I’ll just give you one example—like the issue of revaluation. When I started it, I knew how many people accused me and said: “You don’t want officers to get to their share.” But what I wanted then was uniformity in payment of duty on vehicles. But what do we have now? Everything has slid back to zero level. It’s very unfortunate. That is what I can tell you so far because I can’t be a mirror to myself. Society, the agents, will tell you whether we did well or not. Let me just leave it at that.
Do you think the automation of cargo clearance procedures has improved or worsened the experience of licensed customs agents?
There’s no Eureka yet.
Can you explain further?
It has explained itself. We are not finding it better.
The CG of Customs, in one of his comments last week, said Customs have reduced cargo clearance time from 21 days to between 7 and 10 days through the Authorized Economic Operators.
We are making a mistake here. Authorized Economic Operator is an instrument of the World Customs Organizations. Every country that is signatory must key into it. How many AEOs have been licensed in Nigeria? There are less than 15. Even the AEOs licensed are mostly for exports. How many freight forwarders have been licensed as AEO? The answer is zero. That’s why I don’t want to talk about technical issues. If the CG is telling you that AEOs have been registered, yes, he can tell you that. But the number of AEOs registered is not even up to 10. It’s for export processes, and mostly multinationals. No freight forwarder has been registered as an AEO.
Some say AEO is not meant for freight forwarders, but for importers and exporters.
The category is there. We have security zones. It is about two or three categories. Licensed agents have rights. They have the right to be there. If I have consignment coming on board, I can take them to my warehouse, and pay duty later, that’s AEO. There are two categories. But what have they registered? Only multinationals and exporters.
But isn’t it because they have met the conditions?
They will always meet it, but the conditions are too cumbersome. I’ll give you the forms. I deliberately downloaded it. It’s about 59-something forms that contain conditions, pre-requisites you have to meet before you even register as AEO. No freight forwarder, no customs broker has been given. That’s why you need to do investigations, so that you’ll know.
Let’s take a look at the issue of the National Single Window. It’s looking as if it has been crawling over the years, even after setting up the committee. What’s your take on this?
My take is that it’s a lofty idea. Implementation is not going to be smoothened because we have not dotted our I’s and crossed our T’s. And I said, when the National Single Window Committee was to be put in place, it’s very unfortunate. Whoever advised Mr. President to have excluded freight forwarders is a big minus. And that is why we may be on rigmarole. For now, I’ve not seen anything except the two seminars which I have attended. And I laughed because I don’t see us moving forward. Even though it’s a very good idea, Nigeria is supposed to have gone beyond that. The man piloting it, that guy is very intelligent. But you still have not brought freight forwarders on board. We are the ones who tell you where it will not work.
What exactly is hindering the progress?
This idea of government agencies’ protectionism, you know what I’m saying? SON wants to protect their department, NAFDAC wants to also protect their department and other agencies want to do the same. Let everybody submit a standard operating procedure. Let there be now a single standard operating procedure, which must be legitimized. This is where the angle of legal framework comes in. I said it at the forum. If you’re not doing that, it will continue to be a talk show.
What must be done then?
There are three things. One, bring in freight forwarders. Two, let every individual agency submit a standard operating procedure, including Customs. Let us have one SOP that will be looked at by a technical committee; these are people who have vast knowledge. You must even include journalists in the technical committee. Journalists will give us the angle of journalism. You just mentioned now that no cargo is delayed under Time Release Study. These are the things where technical committee will look into. Thirdly, then we will now look at the legal framework. Why do I say legal framework? You are the leader of an agency, and your agency deliberately, whether advertently or inadvertently delay cargo, what punishment goes to your department? Your department should be ready to pay the demurrage and storage of that consignment. Until these things are done which is what happens in advanced countries, we will not get it right. So, Single Window will continue to be a talk show.
The CRFFN Registrar who was represented at an event complained that the Council has not been incorporated into the Single Window. Are you confirming this?
I’m not the Registrar of Single Window, but I just told you that agents have not been brought on board. So if the Registrar of CRFFN has told you that, that confirms what I told you. So it will continue to be a talk show.
You were a CRFFN Governing Council member for a short time. As it stands now, the Council is without a Governing Council. Many people are worried about this, they say that the body language of the Presidency is lackadaisical about it.
It’s not the President. Stop making mistakes. We have never had it so good. We had an erroneous impression about Tinubu. But when he started churning out his policy, it was very painful. But whether we like it or not now, we are seeing that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Tinubu has appointed a minister for you. What has the Minister done? It’s not Tinubu. Government is a continuum. I was in Abuja and I made some moves. I met some people. I was privileged to board the same flight with the CRFFN Registrar when I was coming and I told him to send a memo to the Minister. Your job will not be complete if there is no governing council in place. He also has some restrictions. There are a lot of things you cannot even do without the governing council.
What steps would you advise next?
He should set up a memo to the Minister. I let him know that I was a member of the last board. If you want to even do away with the last board, conduct another election. And if you must conduct another election, you need to call those people in court. Do not forget that some of our members are in court. We bought form with over ₦500,000, we contested with money, and we campaigned. The government was not even up to one year, we were dissolved. There’s supposed to be a foundation. I expected the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy to even call the 15 elected governing council members and possibly say: “In the interest of the nation, this is why I’m taking this decision, and I need advice.” Government is a feedback mechanism. When you tell us that, we may even give you a better idea of doing it. Look at what is happening now, everything is stagnated. I told him, you can’t move forward even as Registrar of the Council, if there is no governing council. You can only perform very well when the governing board is in place. So that’s what I’ve said several times. I have passed the message, and I’m very sure the minister is aware of it. He’s thinking about it. They were telling me they want to review the Act. You cannot put the cart before the horse. There must be a governing board in place that will move in to it, look at it, and collate ideas from freight forwarders before we’ll now start talking about a review of the act. If you try not to review the act alone, people will sabotage it. Because, what are you reviewing the act for? You’re reviewing an Act that will determine my future, and I’m not involved? You can’t scale through. We’ll just send a letter to the National Assembly saying this law cannot be reviewed now due to some stated reasons and it will die at the point where they are reviewing it.
What’s your assessment of the current Registrar’s performance?
I’ve never been disappointed. When he was appointed, I was one of those that immediately greeted and congratulated him, because I knew him. The guy is a young man, very intelligent, and he knows the job. Even though he’s new to this industry, you’d never know he’s new. The guy is very good. He is a round peg in a round hole. He’s going to perform. I’m not disappointed with his moves because I know that it’s happening. Whoever is condemning anything, let him give us alternatives and give solutions. I don’t just condemn things for condemning sake. . The guy is good, and he’ll move forward. I believe in him.
Having said that, what would be your advice to freight forwarding associations that are in court against his appointment?
My advice is that they are wasting their time. I have advised him and my advice to him is in secret. The CRFFN Act recognizes just five associations now. There are a lot of pressure groups outside that have been registered. I told him to bring them on board and register them. You will see that there will be fair competition. Forget about the fact that you have been in the industry for the past 20 decades. What value have you added? What value are you adding now? Are people not suffering in the industry now? No association is advocating again. I’m not interested. Whoever goes to court has his personal reasons for doing that. If I were to be the Registrar of CRFFN today, all those other pressure groups that are due for registration would be given. But he cannot do it himself. That’s why we need the Governing council to be on board. That’s why I told him you can’t move forward if there’s no governing council. If I’m on board, I’ll just tell him. You can register APFLON. APFLON is doing well, even better than some of the registered associations in the industry.
There are speculations that the CRFFN Registrar is just a placeholder and a puppet in the hands of his bosses controlling him. Do you think so?
That is beer parlour gist. Kingsley is qualified to be the Registrar of the Council. Yes, he has been appointed, and he’s not doing badly. The man is learning fast from the job. Just like when Hadiza Bala Usman was appointed as MD of NPA. Kingsley is even moving faster than expected. If you have the governing council now in place, you’d be surprised what the guy will achieve. But he has limitations. I told him that most of the things that they will pull you back at the ministry, the governing council will process it, propel it and push it for you.
