Time to Unbundle Nigeria Customs Service By Chigozie Chikere
The new measures to ensure transparency in Nigeria Customs
Service (NCS) took a new turn last week as the Comptroller-General, Col. Hameed
Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) ordered officers of the agency to
declare their assets. This drive toward effective public service delivery in
NCS is a welcome development as it is pivotal and underscores the seriousness
of President Muhammadu Buhari’s on-going fight against corruption in Nigeria.Pivotal
in the sense that it is nearing one decade since the Act establishing the Council for the Regulation
of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) came into force – a legislation that empowers
CRFFN to regulate standards of training and certification for freight
forwarding practice but cedes licensing to NCS. Today, the freight forwarding reform
machinery still appears to be in need of a lot more than a new spray of paint
and, this development, experts have linked to unresolved jurisdictional issues between
CRFFN and NCS.
Since inception in 1958, NCS has over the years developed
into a monopoly overseeing a complex network of businesses ancillary to her
core function as regulator, manager, and collector of duties of custom and
excise for Nigeria. Besides, the unique role of the ports as gateway to the country’s
economy has further placed NCS at the hub of international supply chain of
goods and services. Consequently, import, export, shipping, clearing, forwarding,
haulage, and every other aspect of the business of shipping begin and end with
NCS. For many years now, as is consistent with monopolies in Nigeria,
operational atrophy in sub-units can be seen to have set in.
But the Federal Government initiative of 2003 was to reform
the ports first in a bid to improve efficiency and reduce cost of doing business.
The adoption of a landlord model resulted in the concessioning of all terminals
and the unbundling of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). Following the reform, the
Federal Government enacted the CRFFN Act in 2007 to address one component of
the system that is most visibly lagging behind world best practices –Freight
Forwarding.
Nigeria’s competitiveness in freight forwarding practice has
continued to be in question as touts and miscreants make inroads into the
industry, advancing corruption and sharp practices, depreciating the quality of
service, eroding the confidence of importers and sundry other port users, and brazenly
showing reluctance in subscribing to the education and training requirement as
prescribed by CRFFN and accredited by the International Federation of Freight
Forwarders (FIATA).
A gathering of operators of CRFFN accredited training centers,lamenting
the low turnout of freight forwarding practitioners for training, have observed
that the NCS is subtly and indirectly undermining the competitiveness of
Nigerian freight forwarders by the failure of the agency to recognize and recommend
CRFFN training and certification as prerequisite for licensing and ultimately
for freight forwarding practice. The Federal Government is further
shortchanging CRFFN by restricting the licensing responsibility to NCS. By the
way, what is regulation without the power to determine who comes in and who
goes out?
The case for training and certification is strong. By
international standards, freight forwarding practice in Nigeria has lagged even
as the number of practitioners has risen. The lack of professionalism of this
army of touts invading Nigeria’s freight forwarding sub-sector is contributing
largely to the congestion at the ports which evidently is impacting negatively
on the clearing and movement of cargoes in our ports. But foreign companies
engaged in the freight forwarding business in Nigeria are pulling ahead
alarmingly.
The goal of CRFFN is a world-class industry qualification,
modeled on the FIATA requirements for vocational training. CRFFN aims at
determining the standards of knowledge and skill to be obtained by persons
seeking to be registered as freight forwarders and raising those standards from
time to time in accordance with international industry best practice. This
provision encourages freight forwarders to strive for high level of career
achievement and to gain a broader understanding of the principles of cargo
movement in the interest of the public, clients, and employees.
The unbundling of NPA has impacted positively on the ports
and by extension, the economy. One of its challenges though is the influx of
human traffic around the ports. The Ports Security and Nigeria Police have employed
different crowd control measures including raids but that has not dissuaded
miscreants. The unbundling of NCS would certainly transfer the responsibility
of licensing to CRFFN. This review would add a new impetus to the mandate of
CRFFN and expedite the Council’s determination to rid the ports of touts and
miscreants by enforcing training and certification as prerequisites for licensing
and freight forwarding practice.
Chigozie Chikere
Chartered Member, The Chartered Institute of Logistics
& Transport (CILT) Nigeria,
e-mail: grandefather@yahoo.com
Phone: 08039504536
Comments
Post a Comment