Maritime activities closed on Friday with the President, Shippers Association Lagos State, Mr Jonathan Nicol, saying that the floating exchange rate might shed three million staff strength in the maritime sector. Nicol said that the new forex regime had distorted import projections which had now been on decline, reports by News Agency of Nigeria.
According to him, the recent increase in exchange rate of N313 to the dollar is not only unprofessional but conveys the ignorance of port administrators including the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He noted that with the new forex regime, shippers are paying more duty and costs of consumer goods were going up.
He said, “The silence of the Federal Ministry of Finance on this issue without an official guideline is worrisome.
“The Minister of Finance should explain why this is so.’’
In the week under review, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, threatened to shut down the nation’s ports over 43 per cent hike in customs duty.
President of the association, Alhaji Olayiwola Shittu, said that the association condemned in totality the monetary policy that led to the collapse of the maritime industry.
He frowned at the import regime of fixing the foreign exchange rate at N331 to the dollar.
Shittu said, “There should have been a deliberate effort to save Nigerian importers from the debilitating effect of fixing the foreign exchange in calculating the import duty.”
He noted that it was condemnable to force Nigerians to open form ‘M’ for imports at N197 to the dollar, and now forced to pay N331 after the goods had been shipped.
According to Shittu, this is very devastating and uncalled for.
He said, “Governments all over the world make conscious efforts to protect the interest of their citizens.”
“We are calling for a National Executive Council meeting of our association where a date will be announced for total withdrawal of our services’’, Shittu said.
On the scramble by some agencies to return to ports, Shittu said this was not unexpected because the regulatory agencies were too weak.
He said the regulatory bodies were more interested in creating, “toll gates’’ in order to extort the Customs agents.
Shittu urged the National Assembly to be up and doing in their oversight functions and check the activities of the agencies.
Also in the week under review, the NCS opened collaboration with their counterparts in Republic of Benin to facilitate trade and resolve bottlenecks affecting transhipment of goods.
The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Retired Col. Hameed Ali, said this when he visited the Republic of Benin with his team.
Ali said, “Customs is here to see and find solutions to the challenges hindering the smooth operations of Nigerian business operators who engaged in inter-border trade and transshipment of goods from Nigeria to Republic of Benin.
“Nigeria Customs had lost 70 Customs officers between January 2016 till date while performing their duties to stop the activities of smuggling of some products such as rice, poultry products, rice and so on.
“We have made it real to visit Beninoire Customs and discuss on the rudiments, hindering our operations.
“I believe our dialogue will bring out solutions because both countries are interdependent and this why there should be symbolic mutual relationship between them.”
He said that there was need for a level playing ground for Nigeria Customs and Beninoire Customs due to the nature of their operations as well as the law governing the ECOWAS Trade Liberation Scheme.
Ali said that customs was having serious challenges with Nigerian border operators and importers because they still engaged in prohibited goods in spite of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA law) and ETLS which governed both the Customs and stakeholders operations.
“When operators know that there are some certain goods that are prohibited, they still try to bring them into the country,’’ Ali added.
He said that compliant was key to the Nigeria Customs Service, adding that it was Customs responsibility in making sure stakeholders operate in a conducive environment for smooth operations to enable customs to get more revenue due for government.
The law relating to Customs agents is contained in the CEMA Cap 45, Law of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and the Customs and Excise Agents (Licensing) Regulations 1968 (Legal Notice 95/1968 as amended).
In his response, the Director-General, Republic of Benin Customs, Mr Claver Tossou, said there was need for the country to solidify the relationship between Benin Republic and Nigeria to facilitate legitimate trade both countries.
Tossou said the coming of the NCS was a right step in good direction, adding that the visit would enable them to iron out the challenges and find lasting solutions to facilitate trade and protection o f security among the operators.
He said that there was need to protect the Customs laws, symbol and the principles and to establish long lasting cooperation between both countries.
At the interactive session on Aug. 3, the President of Association of the Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents , Alhaji Olayiwola Shittu, said that his members faced a lot of challenges while operating between Seme and Idiroko area of Lagos State.
Shittu said that ANLCA as Customs Brokers operate at land borders, adding that the association was one of the major players operating between Nigeria and Benin.
“Customs should assist in checking the cost of transiting ETLS goods from Ghana to Lagos so that Nigeria could provide more enhancement of trade facilitation and competition in West Africa sub region,’’ he said.
Shittu urged the comptroller-general of Customs to look into the multiple checkpoints along Seme border to Mile 2 in Lagos, saying that there is an estimate of 30 checkpoints mounted by Customs and other security agencies.
The Deputy President of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Chief (Mrs) Alaba Lawson, said there was need to facilitate trade.
Lawson said that Customs should enable the operators to know the legitimate trade they would be doing to reduce cost of doing business.