…Applauds Customs remarkable progress under Adeniyi
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Mickey Excellency Nigeria Limited, Otunba Abdulazeez Babatunde Mukaila has called on the management of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS to consider publishing a comprehensive list of licensed customs Agents on its official website annually to differentiate genuine licensed customs agents from fraudsters.
Mukaila who made this call in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos on Tuesday observed that publishing such list would help to sanitize the system and boost people’s confidence on the licensed customs agents whom he said the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023 described as the representatives of the Service.
He stated that an average Nigerian shipper was being swindled by fraudulent people that call themselves customs brokers and freight forwarders regretting that one would not be able to find a comprehensive list of licensed customs agents on a visit to the official website of the Service which he described as an aberration.
“Customs licensed people genuinely but has refused to publish the names for Nigerians to see who are the genuine, real customs licensed owners, who are the principal owners. Everybody engages just anybody who claimed to be a certified freight forwarder.
“Customs needs to publish this list and periodically, review them and blacklist those that want to go road. These are part of the areas I think we need to do better this year. It’s very important.
“I need to sit in the comfort of my office and still tell you go to customs website, may be it’s the name that pricks your interest, and you will see the direct contact. That is the job of Customs, they are the licensee, if you have licensed people, let the people see who you have licensed not just people grappling in the dark. Who’s a genuine agent? Nobody knows and year in year out, you are licensing people.
“And that has given room to unscrupulous people to be blackmailing genuine licensed agents. We are agents to customs, that is what the new law said. So, if they are our principal, they have the right to let the whole world know who is representing them. These are parts of what I think we should do better this year”, he submitted.
Going further, he noted that much as the Service was doing a lot better now by trying to toe the line of the international and global best practices, the human element was still rife.
According to him, “Downtime, as we speak, in the last 72 hours, there’s no server. 72 hours! God help an average shipper that has 100 containers in the port – 40 feet for example, that will be N68,000 times 100 times three days. Can you quantify how that importer can break even? And nobody cares.
“While I was in office, in the build up to the Customs Act 2023, we fought doggedly to have, as it is done elsewhere, a Court of Arbitration because today, customs still stands as the judge and the jury. Customs needs to look inwards too. The post clearance auditor is now auditing pre clearance. I am not a grammarian but when you say post, it means after but we now have a situation where post clearance is now pre clearance. These are all the human element that the CG will need to, importantly tackle.”
Mukaila who is the immediate past Sole Administrator of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, however, commended the Nigeria Customs Service under the leadership of Mr. Bashir Adewale Adeniyi as the Comptroller General adding that the CGC had really shown that his years as the Public Relations Officer of the Service was not a ruse.
“His ability to rise to the occasion when issue breaks by giving an answer, if not same hour, within same day. There’s always a response from him and that has gone a long way now to give customs a good rating among the shippers and Nigerians in general.
“Gone are the days you really don’t know what has happened. If something breaks with the officers at Idiroko, same day, you will see a response not rumour on where customs stands”, he added.
Photo: Otunba Abdulazeez Babatunde Mukaila, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Mickey Excellency Nigeria Limited.
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