ANLCA BoT G-9 meets western zone, promises to push for 3-year Customs license renewal

The group of nine contestants vying for membership of the Board of Trustees ( BoT) of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents ( ANLCA) on Tuesday met with members of the Western Zone of the association seeking their support ahead of the BoT election holding in the next two weeks.

As part of its campaign promises, the group assured members of the association to engage with the Nigeria Customs Service to secure a three- year renewal of operational license.

Currently, Customs agents are required to renew their operational license on a yearly basis, a development, they said has been a source of financial strain on them.

The group represented by Dayo Azeez, Ademola Mumuney and Tunde Awonuga said it would also appeal with the Customs to unblock licenses of members believed to have been wrongly revoked.

They assured members of their resolve to work with the National Executive Committee ( NECOM), not as a parallel body, but to play advisory role to drive positive change and maintain the existing peace in ANLCA.

Responding to concerns raised by members on the yearly renewal of operational license, the group said all areas of conflicts and challenges in the course of their operations will be identified and that necessary actions will be taken to resolve them.

Speaking, Azeez said, “Our group has taken note of your complaint that our practicing license renewal is the costliest compared to other professions like NBA, APR, COREN, NMA etc. This group will take this up with the management of the Nigeria Customs Service and hopefully, will persuade the authority to raise it up to 3 year time frame rather than the yearly routine.

“We hope to also look at the prospect of negotiating the reduction of the amount. Gvernment is looking for money from all angle but the least of burden must not be killed on account of more and more money. We want to assure you that we will cross the bridge when we get there.

“When we preach peace and harmony in ANLCA, within the leadership structure, it is for our collective good. When the National Executive Committee (NECOM) and the BoT are working and planning together, without one distracting the other, leadership remain focused and can have the time to address some of the complaints that have been tabled.

“So, our own board will engage the customs board and take it up from there. And of course, the board cannot do it alone, it must work with the national leadership to get things done and that is why your support and vote is important. We don’t want a combative board that will constantly be at loggerhead with the NECOM, so these issues will be taken up by us when we come on board; and hopefully, we will get them resolved.’

On his part, Ademola Mumuney said some of the  challenges plaguing customs agents will disappear when the practice is fully professionalized, noting that it will also open up greater opportunities for practitioners.

“ANLCA has been around for a long time but have not gotten to the height we should be as a profession, so a lot of things need to be done. We have said that top on the list is to professionalize our practice, our clients and people we service must have trust in us. It is because they don’t trust us enough that is we are having issues and challenges.

“We must professionalize, so that is what our group intends doing. There is no reason clearing jobs cannot be restricted to Nigerians, but to do that is to indigenize the practice, to get chartered as a profession. Once we do that, no foreigner can come in without dealing with us.”

Speaking on the same vein, Alhaji Awonuga said, “Our profession is global, clearing and forwarding business is done all over the world. While we are crying and lamenting here most of the time, elsewhere it is not so. How are they doing there own, how are they surviving? Why does certain organizations die in Nigeria and hardly survive even 100 years?

“In this industry if you are not careful it will take you a whole week to clear a container, the reason is because we are not organized, so we need to professionalize. To do that we need to act as a collective, and to be a collective we need a board and an exco that is united to lead the process.

“When this one is fighting the other, our problems will never go away and that is why we have come together as like minds to say we want your vote to be at the board so that we can give our NECOM the right support they need to perform and get things done. If there is no peace at the leadership level, we will continue to cry.”

Speaking on some of the challenges during the meeting, members including a former interim National President of ANLCA, Pius Ujubuno lamented that the failure of government to include customs agents into Single Window Committee despite their critical role in the industry.

He also charged the contestants to seek greater recognition for customs brokers when they get into office and to call for a review of the Customs Act 2023 in which clearing agents were named Customs representatives but the NCS is not giving them their right due as its representative.

Ujubuno said, “We were part of the customs act review drafting committee, what was recommended was for licenses to be renewed every four years, but the act when passed didn’t reflect our position or else management is trying to de-emphasis it.

“We have been called different names, clearing and forwarding agents, customs brokers and freight forwarders but in the Customs Act 2023, we were referred to as customs representatives, what is the benefit of that when we are not recognized as fiscal partners. I think it is just a nomenclature.

“We want this incoming BoT to find out and tidy it up. We cannot blame customs because we didn’t start as professionals, we started as artisans and was registered under trade act at that time. But now that we are evolving, educated people have taken over the practice, so l am happy that we are having this dialogue.”