The Association of Nigerian Licensed Custom Agents (ANLCA) on 30th September, 2013 marked its 59th year anniversary. To commemorate the event, President of the association, Prince Olayiwola Shittu held a press briefing in Lagos to highlight some of the achievements of the association; he also used the medium to thrash out lingering controversies about the association. Shipping Position Daily correspondent Dapo Olawuni was there.
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Custom Agents (ANLCA) on 30th September, 2013 marked its 59th year anniversary. To commemorate the event, President of the association, Prince Olayiwola Shittu held a press briefing in Lagos to highlight some of the achievements of the association; he also used the medium to thrash out lingering controversies about the association. Shipping Position Daily correspondent Dapo Olawuni was there.
How would you react to directive of the Minister of Transport that freight forwarding associations should no longer collect dues inside the port?
ANLCA has never forced our members to collect money from them, and we have continually said it that we don't do illegal operations; collection of dues predates the present leadership. I can tell you that our members have never at any time raised eyebrow over collection, the monies being collected were approved by our members at a town hall meeting in 2010 and 2011 where they voluntarily decided to contribute money from their income to sustain the associations. I can also tell you that this was an improved way of collection because before then, task forces were set up and they went about harassing people at the gate, these were the days when things were not being done professionally, but now I can tell you that we don't chase anybody to collect money, we have even designed a better means of collection from our people where they pay their money yearly for the purpose of running the affairs of the association. But chapters have their ad hoc arrangement with their members in order to handle their welfare. There is no general declaration that; this is where ANLCA is going to be collecting money, but chapters made their individual arrangements, but it is not right and professional for an association to say that unless they stay in the port for them to collect money, we have been saying this for so long, at the national level we are not in support of collecting money inside the port.
Is it true that you deliberately boycotted the recent meeting with the minister?
The issue that brought the minister started at the chapter level, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on maritime affairs had come and all of us were there, we did not even know that the minister was going to come, he came unannounced and he set up a committee, since the issues bothers on the chapters, we were engaged in travelling, we had scheduled movements, that is why we felt that those in the chapters who knows the problems they are facing should be able to go there. What we are doing in ANLCA is that we are breeding leaders, so it is not all the time that you can see the president or people at the national level going to meetings on issues that affect the chapters, if there are issues that affect us at the national level, they would have invited me, but I can tell you that I am very proud of our representatives because they were able to show the minister what is going on, and the pronouncement of the minister meets with our expectation. What we have told our members is to continue as watchdog to see whether those directives are properly carried out or not. Remember that the threat to withdraw services emanated from one chapter at Tin Can port, it was restricted to a terminal, the crux of the matter is that the issues involved are the ones that have been coming and going over several committees set up by government without result, including the one set up by the President which I was included. I think the minister just felt that enough is enough and that's why he came to Lagos, but I can tell you that we still have our rapport with the minister from time to time.
There was allegation recently that ANLCA is not the oldest association as it claimed, please react to this?
The issue concerning when ANLCA was born continue to be a funny thing to me because, for example, when we came into this new Republic, they said that Nigeria Police should no longer answer 'Nigerian Police Force' but they should be ' Nigerian Police' because they have to be civilianised, does that remove the time they were set up? No. ANLCA had been the only association, but what we found out in the Nigerian way is that when somebody pulls out from an association, he continues to promote negativity in order to have relevance; we refused to make any response because where it came from; NAFFAC, and what's the meaning of NAFFAC? They are consolidators, they are people who are benefiting without any efforts, they are representatives of freight forwarders who give them Bill of Laden to distribute to the owners and they charge a fee for it, it is an old men platform. How come that nobody knew that ANLCA was not ‘since 1954’ when they were still members of ANLCA, but now that they have moved out they say we are not. If you have a child, after he is grown you gave him name, when you go to baptize the child, the church will definitely give him another name, does that make the child not to exist from when he was born? So whether you call us ANCLA or ANLCA, it is the same thing. It is not an issue for us at all, ANLCA started under the Illiterate Act like so many organizations in Nigeria, when the corporate affairs commission was established it became a matter of law that existing associations must register with the CAC, not because you are registering new, it was the same board members that went into the registration in 1996, we are proud to be ANLCA and we are ‘since 1954’, even in 100 years time it will still be ‘since 1954’.
How will you describe the progress of the association in the past one year?
Between last year and now, ANLCA has progressed more than expected, when we came into office we gave ourselves a four- year plan, in the first two years all the promises on our manifesto were met, but we are now adding value to the promises and we still have seven months to go and within this seven months a lot of things will happen that will show that ANLCA is worthy of what they are. One of our input in the maritime industry is that we are part of the thinking of government on the new system of clearance, we are billed to be in Abuja on Thursday where a home grown software developed by ANLCA is going to be presented to the government that will enable us to work seamlessly by e-transactions, using our biometric identity cards. The reason is that we are licensed, most of the fraud that is being committed at the port is through the external DTI Cafes, this is where passwords of officers are being generated to fly cargo. But now the customs have agreed with us that every license will have its own DTI, those who are not ready to imbibe international best practices should start looking for another job from now. I want to give applause to the CAC Apapa who decided to chase away idle people within the port premises, part of the requirements for you to be a licensed customs agent is that you must have an office, the port is not supposed to be an idle place. I can tell you that within the last two years that we have been in office we have assisted members who do not have license; up to 20 licenses at no cost to them, this is empowering people. Some of the leaders of the other associations do not even have a license. Most of these licenses we assisted them to have, we encouraged them to come together and form a company.
Talking about carrying different identity cards, will this not affect your members?
It does not affect the job, when I went abroad, I was in the office of one of our partners and at his back he hung different identity cards, I was observing and he asked me why, each of the cards according to him is for entering into a particular area. When we were in South Africa, there was a time they blocked the gate and asked us to pass through another road because we were not supposed to pass through the terminal in that area, even when we were expected; this is what we call security control and ISPS code compliance. The problem we have in Nigeria is because when they were concessioning the ports, they did not follow the master plan as it is done elsewhere, each terminal is supposed to have its own entrance for you to go in and out, if I am going to APM Terminal I will take their identity card because they issued it, and they know I must have a business to go and do there, and the fact that you have NPA card or CRFFN or ANLCA card therefore you should enter the terminal is wrong expectation, we have explained to our people.
How can you quantify ANLCA's progress in human resources development?
ANLCA has given birth to all the other associations, so instead of having one national president, we have several presidents, when you have a father you must have children, the platform of ANLCA has been seen as an avenue for grading the relevance of people in the industry, whether right or wrong, that is their believe, and that is why when ANLCA wants to do an election it is like an election at the national level, people see ANLCA as a worthy organization to be identified with and that is why you have not seen anybody or group of people saying that they are out of ANLCA and another association is celebrating them. It is because a task force chairman in ANLCA is better than some deputy presidents in other associations. Some of them will claim they have 2000 members, 5000 members, but go and check the register of CRFFN, what is the number of everybody that has registered with CRFFN, how many corporate companies have registered with CRFFN and how many of them belong to ANLCA, we are the reference point because what we are doing they don't have the capability of doing it, how? We contribute money, we travel on our own, people have been paying their money because they see an avenue through ANLCA to be able to go for these trainings, we don't travel to go and play.
Other associations have alleged that ANLCA is using its position to intimidate them, is this true?
If you are looking for relevance you must work towards it, you cannot gain what you don't work for, because I can make a call and talk to somebody in Aso Rock does not mean it’s because I am an ANLCA member or the president. It is part of the way I have grown overtime which all our members are also imbibing, so because you went to register an association in your name, and by deft of fate you were registered by CRFFN, if (President) Jonathan wants to discuss issues on maritime you must be there? It doesn't work that way, I cannot tell you how many times we have gone to the Villa on consultative meetings, we don't need to announce it, it is because they discovered that our association is relevant to government revenue and they have seen it, you cannot deceive government because the security agencies are giving them the facts. But if you want to be a president whereby your rent is expired and you can blackmail a CAC to give you money and the man is saying No, and you now call the press to say Customs are thieves, after this they call you again and you keep quiet. Yes, people are doing this. Don't forget that if you don't have a job in ANLCA, you cannot hold an office, I know the weight and the load I am carrying as the national president, it is because I have a company that is working, I am not begging people or going from one office to the other to ask for favour. I am not a consultant to others, so these associations have to work hard like we did, they should not complain because it took ANLCA 59 years to be where it is, while some of them are just coming in. Let me say here that ANLCA is not a regulatory authority, ANLCA is an umbrella body of licensed customs agents who chose to be in the association, we keep our doors open but you must have a license.
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