By Uzor Odigbo
National President of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Ujunwa Tony Nwabunike has revealed that the partial border closure by the federal government will ultimately affect balance of trade between Nigeria and neighbouring countries.
He disclosed this in a chat with Journalists on Monday describing the situation as unhealthy for the for trade and economy.
“The border closure, least we forget affects legitimate businesses especially of Nigerians involved in import and export business. I also believe Nigeria is not ready for trade in Africa after signing a treaty recently on trade liberalisation in Africa”
“The unfortunate thing about the border closure is that Customs keep saying they are making huge seizures of smuggled goods and humongous arrest of smugglers and one needs to evaluate all these to ascertain the real situation, he said.
The ANLCA boss also revealed that following the border closure, country like Benin has established a rail link with fellow francophone country Niger which is 80% completed.
According to him, kwara, Kogi and others have over 1000km unmanned pararel border lines with neighbouring countries where some of the prohibited goods are smugglerd in the country.
He advise that Nigeria should standardize its trade as to mitigate the spate of smuggling.
Speaking on his achievement since assuming office 19 months ago, Nwabunike said over 300 licenses of Freight Forwarders were blocked before his assumption of office as President of ANLCA.
According to him, he used persuasion and his long standing closeness to the service for it to review its decision on the blocked licenses.
He added that the hitherto blocked licenses prevented its owners from operating , a situation that caused hardship and was capable of promoting unemployment in the sector
At the roundtable organised by Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON) Nwabunike said efforts are in top gear to boost the operating capacity of his members through training and retraining.
He also told reporters that his association recently sponsored ten persons abroad on some “Train the Trainer” courses .
According to him, six of them just returned from Brussels while four of his members who just completed their training in the United States are back to the country.
He described some alleged internal rumblings by a few members of ANLCA National Executive Committee (NECOM) as parts of effort at resisting change
He also said ANLCA Secretariat under his watch has become more functional with increased documentation coupled with higher degree of discipline
He also disclosed that he is leading his association to sponsor a bill in the National Assembly for the establishment of a Chartered Institute of Customs Brokers of Nigeria ( CICBN)
The CIBN bill according to him will increase practitioners knowledge and improve on their standards as distinct professionals in the transport chain.
