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By Steve Agbota
[email protected] 08033302331
Former Acting National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr. Kayode Farinto, has warned that the growing dominance of foreigners in Nigeria’s freight forwarding industry could trigger xenophobic attacks at the nation’s ports if not urgently addressed.
In this interview with Daily Sun, he pointed out that foreign grip on the freight forwarding profession is an existential threat that needs to be tackled headlong, insisting that the clearing of project cargoes has been taken over by multinationals.
“CC and C came into Nigeria and built railways. CC and C now has a clearing department. MSC is a shipping agent. MSC now has a clearing line. And many of them like that,” he pointedout.
He urged the Federal Government and all the freight forwarding associations across the nation’s ports to collaboratively tackle the issues before it leads to xenophobic attacks. He also spoke on the issue of Customs overtime cargo clearance and other maritime-related issues in the country.
Some clearing agents were lamenting that foreigners are dominating the clearing and forwarding profession in Nigeria, and it is the foreigners who are handling most of the project cargoes. What is your take on this?
You know my take on this in the last three years. I’m one of those who have been clamouring that we should have what is called indigenisation of freight forwarding. You all know this. When I was a member of the council, I raised this at the council, and the council was actually looking at it. I brought up a proposal on this issue, which should be seriously looked into, predicting that if it continues, we’ll continue to lose our cargo.
But now, I’ve been proven right because it doesn’t mean we don’t have project cargo in Nigeria. Of course, we do have project cargo. It has been taken over by the multinationals. CC and C came to Nigeria to build railways. CC and C now has a clearing department. MSC is a shipping agent. MSC now has a clearing line. And many of them like that.
So, it’s not wrong information to say that freight forwarding has been taken over by foreigners. Yes, it is. I just wrote a personal letter to the CGC itself, in line with your new Act, Section 104, Subsection 2, saying that you should not register foreigners. Please abide by this law because if you don’t register them, they don’t have any licence to practice.
In our ports now, we are rubbing shoulders with foreigners. It is even the foreigners that the CAC prefers to see. It has got to that level. It’s unfortunate. And these are the things that the various associations should sit down and look into and face headlong, before it gets to a level that is called xenophobic attacks. Because it’s going to get to that level. If nothing is done about it, it will get to a level of xenophobic attack. So that’s why government should urgently look into it and solve this problem.
So, the issue of foreigners taking over our jobs, I call it an existential threat. You know what? When an issue is existential, it’s an existential threat to indigenous freight forwarders. And it needs to be tackled headlong.
Still on this issue of multinationals taking indigenous jobs from clearing agents. How can a foreigner come to Nigeria and take the jobs that belong to Nigerians? Sir, don’t you think that there is a need to take this matter to the National Assembly at least to address this issue?
We are making a mistake. In law, what is the responsibility of the National Assembly? To promulgate law. The National Assembly has promulgated the law. I will open it for you in the CEMA. The National Assembly has made a pronouncement that on no account should a foreigner be registered as a Customs broker. So, that is already an impediment for them. But they are still finding their way to be registered.
It is not an executive function. It is the responsibility of the executive arm of the government to make sure that this thing is stopped. And the executive cannot do anything if the various stakeholders in the industry do not see it as a threat.
I am not seeing it as an ordinary threat. I am seeing it as an existential threat. And if you cannot take it, it is going to boomerang to a level of xenophobic attacks in this industry. You will take it as a threat. In the next nine months, let’s see what happens.
Does that mean we do not have project cargo? Of course, there are project cargoes. But who handles it? It is the multinationals. So, except something is done about it urgently.
Is there a waiver clause to this Act?
There is no waiver clause. What they are doing smartly – maybe you are my friend, and this one is my friend – they will now make you an honorary director in the company and register the company. And that is, they are being smart by half. It’s a crook. Do you get it now?
That’s why when you see a law, people will want to look at the weakness of that law and cash in on it. That’s what they do. And we know that’s what they do. So, there should be a stringent law that will prevent foreigners.
Okay, we can also go back to the National Assembly, like you said, and make a proviso to the CAC’s Act that for a company to be registered, if it must involve foreigners, it’s not only that Nigerians will be appointed as a director, but they must have a large chunk of the shares. Maybe that will reduce the threat. Maybe that will nip it in the bud.
So, like you said, okay, we can still go back to the National Assembly and say that. So, we need to collate the information and forward it to the National Assembly and present it. But the problem is that I am the only one talking about these foreigners taking our jobs in the last seven years.
Recently, some e-commerce vendors lamented that the $300 million “de minimis” threshold for imported goods could actually affect their trade, so that anybody can just buy goods from any country and then ship them in without necessarily making use of their platform anymore and so on. But I intend to get your take on this, whether you see this as something that will actually affect trade, particularly for e-commerce.
Well, as you are talking, I’m looking at it from a different angle. Okay. You see, thank God we travel, and we see what is happening in other countries. I went to London recently, and I said, let me go to Albania. Albania is just a border to Greece. Europe is borderless now depending on what you are carrying.
But you will see one place that is inscribed, If you have anything, declare Customs, meaning you can declare yourself. What is de minimis in Europe? The minimum is 1,000 euros or $1,000. If you are saying de minimis is $300, it’s ridiculous. Convert it to Naira, how much is that? No, let’s convert it to Naira, it is about N350,000. That’s rubbish.
If I go abroad alone, I want to buy souvenirs for some people. How much do you spend on buying souvenirs? Let’s tell ourselves the truth. It could even be one or two bags. So, if you are now saying our de minimis is $300, I find it very ridiculous. I’m thinking the minimum would have been $1,000. But it has been passed, what do we do? That’s why I say carry along stakeholders.
You are talking about e-commerce. That does not affect e-commerce because, as you are now, you are Mr. Steve, if you are coming and they say de minimis is $300, you cannot have a de minimis three times now. It’s only once and you cannot duplicate it. So, what is $300?
So, I even want to say that it’s even very low compared to international standards in other climes. Even if you say $500, it’s okay. What is $300 now? Multiply it, Naira is falling. Naira is not too good. Naira is weak.
What can $300 buy?
Because de minimis is okay, I want to buy things for people that I will not declare; I will not pay duty on them. That’s the meaning of de minimis. The $300, it’s very low to me. So, you are looking at it from e-commerce, it will not affect it, it will never affect e-commerce.
Everywhere in the whole world, that’s what we call de minimis – meaning the minimum that is passable without payment of duty. The white people have envisaged that you may go abroad and buy things for your friends. As a visitor, you can buy $500 worth of gifts without paying duty. You can have a small gold that is as small as this, it’s over $100,000.
So, it will never affect e-commerce. It will never.
Also, the Nigerian Customs Service said they want to start automation of overtime cargoes. And from what we learnt, they are going to start from Zone A. What’s your reaction to this automation? Are you optimistic that they will go ahead?
You see, my problem is that we keep putting the cart before the horse. This is you battling with B-Odogwu. I wrote a personal letter to the CGC because I look at the B-Odogwu and I look at NICISSII. I criticised it and I said, okay, do you know in NICISSII, there’s traders’ information. What do I mean by traders’ information? You can Google NICISSII now; you can know the exchange rate of Naira today. You can know what a trader needs to do as of today. These are not in B-Odogwu.
And these are things that are needed for a trading community to educate them.
We have glitches here and there on your B-Odogwu. B-Odogwu does not recognise form M. At times, your PAAR, which was issued by you, written B-Odogwu, will not be found on the platform. Many of these problems that you are still contending with, I’m of the opinion that you would have made your B-Odogwu to scale through, perfect it, knowing fully well that it has come to stay. Acceptability is there. Nobody can blame Customs. That we have glitches here and there, that is why we are paying demurrage on storage. Unlike what happened three weeks ago, when nobody could take cargo for three weeks. If you are now saying that you want automation of overtime cargo, who should be blamed for that? Journalist, answer it yourself.
Your own system is unable to accept declarations for three good weeks. And you want to automate overtime cargo and say in 29 days. Remove it from 29 days, what is left? It’s a work on development. But you can’t implement it now because your system is faulty. You do not have smooth operation for now; your system is not seamless. Until you have a perfect system that is seamlessly operated. That nobody complains about. Before I traveled abroad, I made payment on B-Odogwu for two good days; it did not reflect in the system that I made payment. Unlike NICISSII, the moment you make payment, it reflects that the duty has been paid. Solve all these problems before you start going to automation of overtime cargo.
It’s like you are putting the cart before the horse.
Who should be blamed for the three weeks that you have problems that you called glitches? And me, I call it downtime. Who do you assign a problem? And we have a vessel that has actually called; consignments have been stagnant in the terminal. We are unable to clear it. Let us assume that I normally do contract jobs for those three weeks now, who pays my demurrage and storage? The importer said he has given me a bill of laden before the arrival of the vessel. He said I don’t want to hear anything about B-Odogwu. He said go and solve it. And he has signed the contract with you. Here you are, you are not talking about automation of overtime cargo. I think we don’t need that for now. What this management team should be looking at now is go and perfect your B-Odogwu first. Ensure that declaration is done seamlessly. That there is no delay on your own part before you start talking about automation of overtime cargoes. Everything will fall in line if you do your system seamlessly. All you need to do is just to issue a circular or a port order from January of 2026, Nigeria Customs Service want to automate our overtime cargo. Your cargo should not spend more than 30 days in the ports. Everybody already knows, because you don’t have any excuse. We know the port is a transit port. If you leave your cargo and it is beyond 30 days, you go to the general coordinator to clear it. If it is beyond 60 days, you need to go to Abuja. Anything after 60 days, it becomes federal government property. People will take you to court and you will be surprised, they will get judgment. So I am not saying you should not automate your overtime cargo. But this is not the best time. You can rather focus on ensuring that we have seamless operation, cargo clearance, and you are facilitating trade.
But some stakeholders said importers and agents sometimes they deliberately left their cargoes at the ports. How true is this?
Yeah, you see there may be some classes of people in that category. But you cannot blankly say everybody. There could be some even multinationals that their raw materials are at the port and they already have it in their warehouse and they are not finished using it. We know of those. But what is the percentage? Give us evidence. I don’t believe in blanketing issues. Give me data. Give me statistics that so and so percentage is left in the port deliberately. Okay? If you are now saying that, what is the percentage of those categories? Meaning it does not exist. You can’t tell me anything in the maritime industry, give me data. Without giving me data, no, I will not accept it. Give me data. What is the percentage? Give me evidence. So and so importer, we notice that he is using our port as a storage. Then we look at the percentage. Is it negligible? It is possible everywhere in the world. It is not Nigeria alone. It is not peculiar to us. But don’t use that one as a yardstick. Is that why your system is collapsing? Is that why you have duties on your system? Is that why the same B-Odogwu that we believe is indigenous, that you are issuing PAAR, you are unable to perfect it, and you are unable to pay duty? It is not an excuse. It is flipping.
Few days ago, the Minister of Finance directed Customs to suspend 4% FOB on imported goods. What is your reaction?
You all know my take on it. When it was newly implemented, I said this cannot fly. And I’m still maintaining that suspension is not abrogation. Suspension is for a while. And I’m very sure that the Minister, in his own magnanimity, received too many complaints. Because the moment that thing was implemented, it actually dropped the volume of cargo that comes to Nigeria. What we are saying is that, how do we cushion the effect of this new tax? It’s a welcome idea. I like it, because that’s what I’m saying. Sensitises people enough for them to know that this law, or this tax is coming. But whether we like it or not, it’s a law. I keep telling everybody it’s a law. Until it is amended in the National Assembly, nobody can do anything. It’s a welcome development for me. But going forward, I’m still of the opinion that should they bring it, they want to bring it back in January, remove 7% port duty, remove 15% levy on used vehicles. This is way you can tell me, that you need to cushion the effect of the 4% on FOB. 4% on FOB is very high. It’s a lot of money. And going forward, we stakeholders should be thinking of how to go to National Assembly and see how this law can be amended to 4% of CIF. If not, it will continue to discourage trade and kill trading practices.
Also, the Nigerian Customs Service said they want to start automation of overtime cargoes. And from what we learnt, they are going to start from Zone A. What’s your reaction to this automation? Are you optimistic that they will go ahead?
You see, my problem is that we keep putting the cart before the horse. This is you battling with B-Odogwu. I wrote a personal letter to the CGC because I look at the B-Odogwu and I look at NICIS II. I criticised it and I said, okay, do you know in NICIS II, there’s traders’ information? What do I mean by traders’ information? You can Google NICIS II now; you can know the exchange rate of the Naira today. You can know what a trader needs to do as of today. These are not in B-Odogwu.
And these are things that are needed for a trading community to educate them. We have glitches here and there on your B-Odogwu. B-Odogwu does not recognise Form M. At times, your PAAR, which was issued by you, written B-Odogwu, will not be found on the platform. Many of these problems that you are still contending with, I’m of the opinion that you would have made your B-Odogwu to scale through, perfect it, knowing fully well that it has come to stay. Acceptability is there. Nobody can blame Customs. That we have glitches here and there, that is why we are paying demurrage on storage. Unlike what happened three weeks ago, when nobody could take cargo for three weeks. If you are now saying that you want automation of overtime cargo, who should be blamed for that? Journalist, answer it yourself. Your own system is unable to accept declarations for three good weeks. And you want to automate overtime cargo and say in 29 days. Remove it from 29 days, what is left? It’s a work-in-development. But you can’t implement it now because your system is faulty. You do not have smooth operation for now; your system is not seamless. Until you have a perfect system that is seamlessly operated, that nobody complains about.
Before I traveled abroad, I made payment on B-Odogwu for two good days; it did not reflect in the system that I made payment. Unlike NICIS II, the moment you make payment, it reflects that the duty has been paid. Solve all these problems before you start going to automation of overtime cargo. It’s like you are putting the cart before the horse. Who should be blamed for the three weeks that you have problems that you called glitches? And me, I call it downtime. Who do you assign a problem? And we have a vessel that has actually called; consignments have been stagnant in the terminal. We are unable to clear it. Let us assume that I normally do contract jobs for those three weeks now, who pays my demurrage and storage? The importer said he has given me a bill of lading before the arrival of the vessel. He said I don’t want to hear anything about B-Odogwu. He said go and solve it. And he has signed the contract with you. Here you are, you are now talking about automation of overtime cargo. I think we don’t need that for now. What this management team should be looking at now is, go and perfect your B-Odogwu first. Ensure that declaration is done seamlessly, that there is no delay on your own part before you start talking about automation of overtime cargoes. Everything will fall in line if you do your system seamlessly. All you need to do is just issue a circular or a port order from January of 2026: Nigeria Customs Service wants to automate our overtime cargo. Your cargo should not spend more than 30 days in the ports. Everybody already knows, because you don’t have any excuse. We know the port is a transit port. If you leave your cargo and it is beyond 30 days, you go to the general coordinator to clear it. If it is beyond 60 days, you need to go to Abuja. Anything after 60 days, it becomes federal government property. People will take you to court and you will be surprised, they will get judgment. So I am not saying you should not automate your overtime cargo. But this is not the best time. You can rather focus on ensuring that we have seamless operation, cargo clearance, and you are facilitating trade.
But some stakeholders said importers and agents sometimes deliberately left their cargoes at the ports. How true is this?
Yeah, you see, there may be some classes of people in that category. But you cannot blankly say everybody. There could be some, even multinationals, that their raw materials are at the port and they already have it in their warehouse and they are not finished using it. We know of those. But what is the percentage? Give us evidence. I don’t believe in blanketing issues. Give me data. Give me statistics that so-and-so percentage is left in the port deliberately. Okay? If you are now saying that, what is the percentage of those categories? Meaning it does not exist. You can’t tell me anything in the maritime industry; give me data. Without giving me data, no, I will not accept it. Give me data. What is the percentage? Give me evidence. So-and-so importer, we notice that he is using our port as storage. Then we look at the percentage. Is it negligible? It is possible everywhere in the world. It is not Nigeria alone. It is not peculiar to us. But don’t use that one as a yardstick. Is that why your system is collapsing? Is that why you have duties on your system? Is that why the same B-Odogwu that we believe is indigenous, that you are issuing PAAR, you are unable to perfect it, and you are unable to pay duty? It is not an excuse. It is flipping.
A few days ago, the Minister of Finance directed Customs to suspend 4% FOB on imported goods. What is your reaction?
You all know my take on it. When it was newly implemented, I said this cannot fly. And I’m still maintaining that suspension is not abrogation. Suspension is for a while. And I’m very sure that the Minister, in his own magnanimity, received too many complaints. Because the moment that thing was implemented, it actually dropped the volume of cargo that comes to Nigeria. What we are saying is that, how do we cushion the effect of this new tax? It’s a welcome idea. I like it, because that’s what I’m saying. Sensitise people enough for them to know that this law, or this tax, is coming. But whether we like it or not, it’s a law. I keep telling everybody, it’s a law. Until it is amended in the National Assembly, nobody can do anything. It’s a welcome development for me. But going forward, I’m still of the opinion that should they bring it, they want to bring it back in January, remove 7% port duty, remove 15% levy on used vehicles. This is the way you can tell me that you need to cushion the effect of the 4% on FOB. 4% on FOB is very high. It’s a lot of money. And going forward, we stakeholders should be thinking of how to go to the National Assembly and see how this law can be amended to 4% of CIF. If not, it will continue to discourage trade and kill trading practices.
Recently, Customs promoted over 3,000 officers, the highest in recent times. How will you react to this promotion? Many have said that this promotion is not well deserved. Some said that some of this promotion, when we look at the statement from the CG, they said that only two were demoted. We didn’t hear of any Customs officer sacked or removed from his position or so. How will you react to this promotion? Do you think it’s something that we need to actually celebrate?
Yeah, why not? Somebody who is due for promotion should be promoted. Let us not be pessimists. And if the CG is not giving us data, it does not mean that they are not disciplining officers. They have a way of disciplining officers, but they may not want to make it public. So if the procedure of promoting officers laid down by Ahmed Ali, he actually sanitised it, and I believe that this is what Wale is footing on. So I congratulate those that were promoted. I’m not of the opinion that it’s not due, because there’s going to be a lot of vacuum upstairs in the next one year. So people must be pushed up. There must be promotion. So the issue of internal discipline is an internal issue to them, except where there are glaring cases and you report it and nothing was done about it. Nobody has said that. So I give that to him. If the complaints get to his head, he quickly acts on it. So I’m one of those that would say congratulations to all those that are promoted.
