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By Steve Agbota, [email protected]
“The VIN valuation has been distorted and that was not the plan of those that actually gave us this idea. Now, we have a situation where our members are forced to part with money having gone through the procedure. These are the things we must stop.
“The intention of VIN valuation is to discourage one on one contact. You do everything seamlessly online but now even when you have your VIN valuation some officers will still insist that you must come and see them. The VIN valuation has been bastardised,” these were the words of the acting President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr Kayode Farinto.
Farinto, who spoke with Daily Sun on the issues affecting the Nigerian maritime sector, lamented that Nigeria does not have a listening government, saying that the incoming government needs an SSA office to the Presidency on maritime affairs who will collate information and take it immediately to the Presidency for it to be attended to immediately, which is what this present government lack.
He also talked about the nation’s cargo diversion into neighbouring countries, Lekki deep seaport and cargo transshipment, issues surrounding Vehicles Identification Number (VIN), drop in importation and the changes he will bring to the freight forwarding sector and what ANLCA members stand to benefit if elected as ANLCA president and among others.
What Lekki deep seaport needs to be viable
One things I noticed in Nigeria is that change is always a problem. Lekki deep seaport needs marketing, which the promoters have not been doing. They have not been doing it. You need to market that port and the only people that can market that port is association like ours. I just told them passively that day that let’s just help you market this port because it is when you market that port, people will now know the facilities involve in that port or on ground in the port, the advantages of taking their goods to that port and to the fact that there are seamless operations, free flow of traffic and the fact that you take your cargo there, you will not regret it. These are part of marketing strategies and nobody seems to be marketing that port and that is why I want to personally send a letter to the management of that port to tell them you need marketing.
You need to sensitise Nigerians and let the Nigerians or trading community particularly the importers know that they should make use of that port and they also have to give incentives. It is very important. It is when you are not ready to give incentives that importers will say why do I have to go to Lekki port and leave Apapa port. And don’t forget, that place is very far and unfortunately, there is no rail connectivity. The traffic on that road is very killing . So these two things are working against that port and expect government is coming to their aid. They said the rail will cost about $1.8 billion. So Lekki port needs a lot of things, it needs marketing, it needs to be become viable.
Allegations that cargoes meant for Apapa and Tin Can Port are moved to neighboring countries due to infrastructure collapse?
Whereas, it is not as if is not true. It is true and there are many factors that caused that. Some of our quay aprons are dilapidated and we have too many overhead cost in Nigeria. How long does it cost to clear a cargo? The cost of cargo clearance and the attitude of Nigerian government agencies viz avis Customs and regulatory agencies, I’m not too encouraged. That was why I suggested that for the coming government, they need a bridge builder, they need an SSA office to the Presidency on maritime affairs who will collate information and take it immediately to the Presidency for it to be attended to immediately and that is what this present government lack and that is why it should have done more than what he has done. They rely on only Minister of Transportation and Minister of Finance. When was the last time Minister of Finance visited the port? Maybe few months ago when they were about commissioning the scanners and in the last five years, we have not seen her in the port. When was the last time, Minister of Transportation visited the port? These are things I said you need to move closer to the people you are governing. Feedback mechanism, so that you will be able to attend to whatever things that are germane.
Yes, we lost cargoes to the neighbouring countries, there is no doubt about that and government policies also are contributing factors to why we lose cargoes to neighbouring ports. For instance, the issue of vehicles policy. This is a policy that should have been reviewed by now if you are talking about 12 years old vehicles to be allowed to Nigeria, meaning that it is only 2014 and 2015 vehicles that can come legitimately. How many Nigerians can afford it? I’m of the opinion as the years passes, the government would have review it to 15 years. The younger graduates that are using Uber, are using 2019, 2010 vehicles, if you look at this vehicles, 45 per cent of them are smuggled into Nigeria through unapproved routes. And these are also ways that Federal Government is losing revenue. And Customs has been given a policy to implement and Customs does not have a choice than to implement that policy because it is not a policy in cap but than to implement the policy of government.
So going forward, we hope to have a government that will be a listening one and will be very close to the stakeholders. Is going to be a government to generate more revenue, is going to be a government for policy not to summersault and you feel what the citizens are going through and that will also help us in the area of economy growth.
World Bank ranking of Nigerian cargo throughput
Don’t let’s forget that the COVID-19 gave the world economy meltdown. If you think Nigeria is moving forward, it was a result that it has affected the whole world. The COVID-19, the Russian war and some other things that have happened throughout the whole world are actually affected the global economy. So do not look at if our cargo throughput has gone up or we are saying our import volume has not dropped, it has actually dropped but compared to what is happening in the whole world that is why you think we have an increase. It could be an increase from what we had last year is not impossible. But we know that we have a drop in the volume of import. That is number one.
Number two, the World Bank will tell us where they got their data from. That is very important. I can sit in my office now and start imaginary data but physically we are on ground, we know what is happening. The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) should tell us the actual cargo throughput this year, we know the volume of importation has actually dropped. But if you want comparative analysis to what is happening in the whole world you will think that Nigeria is not doing bad, no; there is still economic meltdown here and there in the whole world. But when you now look at it comparatively, you will think that we are not doing bad but our cargo import has actually dropped by what percentage I cannot tell you because I don’t have data. But from what I know as a practioner who is on ground, we are in May and the whole May is very dull. And everybody is waiting for the inauguration to come up before anybody invest on anything or bring in any cargo. The logistics performance index of world bank cannot totally be condemned but if you look at it comparatively to what is happening in the whole world you know that is not as if we are doing bad but the cargo is droping.
What should we be expecting from ANLCA if you are elected as President?
Well, I still want to correct an impression, ANLCA has a long life and anybody can still come tomorrow and say they want to contest. So that does not mean that people will no come out but I have prepared myself for this job. The first thing I want to do is to change the narration. Changing the narration from where it has been from where it is now. Changing the narration from the fact that to make government know that we are very important to the economy growth of this country. Going forward, what we are going to to do this year if I’m elected is to look at how much we have contributed to the economy of this country in 2023, then we use that to negotiate with the government. We are also going to look at the fact that freight forwarders are not respected and protected, no incentives for us. I’m one of those that told the CRFFN if you want to collect POF, there must be a kind of incentives for the freight forwarders that is giving them back and it was approved for 35 per cent and this has also not been implemented. We must ensure that it is implemented. We are also going to advise government to encourage Customs brokers if Customs is telling you they generate N1 trillion any year, they have not generated it, they only midwife it. What happened to that man that generating that revenue? So that this goes a long way to encouraging people to increase their level of compliance. You keep talking about compliance, but what is it that you have giving to people that encourage compliance? It is not on table. We are going to look at too many issues. Our roles and various government agencies, we are looking at you as a regulator or regulatory government agency, are you actually doing that job or you are turn your agency to revenue generation? We are going to challenge a lot of things and we are going to tell our members to sit up. There must be attitudinal change. What we are also looking at is that if you look at the death rate in the maritime industry is increasing because we have a job that can make you an hypertensive at anytime. We are going to tell our members that it is very important to monitor their health maybe on weekly basis or monthly here we declare free health week for our members. As we are doing it at the national and we make sure it is done at the various chapters.
Above all, we are also going to meet with the government to negotiate, encourage them or plead with them to increase import ban on vehicles from 12 years to 15 years, telling government they will generate more revenue if they do it and that will discourage smuggling of all these vehicles through unapproved routes. We have a lot of programmes if elected president of the association. I want to tell you that the first six months is work because a lot of things have spoilt. Alot of issues are on ground and our members on the field are really suffering. Look at the VIN valuation, the VIN valuation now has been bastardised. If you look at every port like Tin Can and PTML, human factors have coming in. We are going to ensure that we reforce whoever is doing that to go back to original plan. For now I don’t want to let out but I do know and even seen and witnessed that the VIN valuation has been distorted and that was not the plan of those that actually gave us this idea. Now,we ha ve a situation where our members are forced to part with money after haven gone through The procedure. These are the things we must stop. The intention of VIN valuation is to discourage one on one contact. You do everything seamlessly online but now even when you have your VIN valuation some officers will still insist that you must come and see them. Theseare the things we must put a stop to. We are going to put stop it because if you are talking about compliance, compliance is a two ways thing. You can comply by what you have by paying my duty, the onus now lies o n the Customs officer to comply by ensuring that particular cargo or goods is r eleased without any further delay. These are things we are also going to look at .Rule of engagement, we would look at it and we will be working with the incoming government and tell them all what is happening in the industry and advise them on how we can move forward. By the time we are one year in office, you will see a better ANLCA.
