A Licensed Customs Agent, Mr. Pius Ujubuonu has said that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Act No. 16 of 2007 has created more confusion in the maritime sector than it was meant to solve.
Ujubuonu who made this know while exchanging views with Primetime Reporters in Lagos disclosed that the architect of the bill originally built it around customs agency but brought in an emerging profession in the industry called freight forwarding.
He added that with that Act, one would look at two different fields as one as often times, they were within the non vessel carrying service providers in the business of maritime and Aviation.
“In most cases, because our law has muddled it up as a particular profession, the administration has become a little bit difficult. You will find that you have created a Council that will regulate freight forwarding in Nigeria and there already exist a body, an agency of government which is customs that regulates customs agency.
“So, most times, you find out that what the Act is saying and what the customs are saying or the schedule of customs sometimes run counter to each other because if customs wants to exercise their own role over the activities of the customs agents, you find out that it runs counter to some practices of freight forwarding especially those ones that has no business with the international trade formalities and documentation”, he said.
Ujubuonu who is a member of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) observed that in the last six to seven months, there had been an undeclared war between the customs agents and the freight forwarders over the issues surrounding the Practitioners’ Operating Fee (POF) adding that the customs agents position on the collection of the POF had been that the fee should be paid through declaration since that was the whole essence of the gazette that authorized the collection of such fee.
According to him,” The Customs agents are saying, we are the declarants, if we make a declaration and if there are drawbacks, it is the customs agents that will get the drawbacks. Associations are only recognized for the convenient of administration, associations are not actually a factor, that if government wants to approve the usage of this POF, it is the business of the declarants, the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the Council itself.
“So, if there is any allocation whatsoever, it shouldn’t go to any association, it should go to whoever is the declarant and who are the declarants? Customs Agents, a freight forwarder does not necessarily need to get a customs license, he can operate his business without the customs license. By the time you come to the point where you have that strong chain, which is the customs agency, where you need it, you will hire one, pay him or her service fee and he will provide you the service and you go. It does not stop you from running your warehouse.
He averred that one does not need customs license to run packaging, ship chartering on container brokerage or consolidation as the case may be except for a business like chandelling or stevedoring which he said may require some degrees of authorization which is not the same thing as customs agency.
He said,” Ordinarily, we are supposed to be benefiting from the Ministry of Finance because 1% CISS (Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme) is supposed to provide the fund for our training. It is an account in the Central Bank of Nigeria that some percentage of it is supposed to be used for our training and we are part of the people who are supposed to be beneficiaries of the training”.
On the achievement made in the freight forwarding subsector in the last one year, Ujubuonu pointed out that,” There is no appreciable progress made. We are just roaming around, between the period of May last year and now, a group called CAFFA (Concerned Accredited Freight Forwarding Association), they formed a block of four against one and by today, there are about 8 to 10 associations waiting to be recognized. ANLCA appears to be the only association on her own, accusation and counter accusations which have left us in the middle of no way”.
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1 Comment
So long as persons refuse or ignore to read Art 19 of CRFFN Act 19 properly and fully appreciate what it is saying, so long will they pit CRFFN against NCS as if that Art 19 is against CUSTOMS. CRFFN regulates freight forwarding and not any other activity or industry, not Customs agency, not Courier agency and surely not airline cargo agency. Customs is not the only agency affected by Art 19. Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority licenses airline appointed representatives and NIPOST licenses courier operators while Customs licenses Customs agents. WHAT CRFFN ACT says is NCAA, CUSTOMS, NIPOST etc should license ONLY freight forwarders ALREADY REGISTERED BY CRFFN. NCAA and NIPOST have no problems with that provision of CRFFN Act 16 and are complying with that. WHY ALL THIS hullabaloo about a straight forward provision and creating problem where none exists?