The Comptroller -General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd.) described the proliferation of freight forwarding associations as a problem to his administration.
Ali who disclosed this last week while addressing the stakeholders in the maritime industry in Lagos said that there were so many associations that he didn’t know of their existence.
He revealed that proliferation of association created problems as often times all the associations would want the service to treat them the same way it treated a particular association failing which one creates another faction and yet another faction.
“But let me also, say this, sometimes, the proliferation of associations also creates problem for us. Here we have heard so many organizations and honestly, I don’t know of their existence.
“So, these things create problems because some of the times you want us to treat you the same way others are treated and when you fail, you create another faction and there is another faction. While you create a faction, it becomes difficult for us to know who to work with and therefore the recognition you are looking for may not come not because we belittle you but because we don’t want to be the source of encouraging the factions.
“A mother organization will always be a mother organization, anybody that works with a splinter will not want to work with the original body”, he said.
He therefore urged the leadership of the various freight forwarding associations to harmonize their membership so as to benefit from the service as according to him, that is the only way forward.
Recalled that there was a little disagreement between the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) over who should take one out of the two position allotted to the organized private sector on the membership of the Board of Customs in the draft amendments to the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) during the Stakeholders Engagement on review of CEMA organized by NCS in Lagos last week prompting the CGC’s response.
Send your news, press releases/articles to info@primetimereporters.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @reportersinfo and on Facebook at facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
