By Uzor Odigbo
Lagos
The comptroller general of Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali, has conceded to synagise with other relevant bodies in the maritime sector to drive away smuggling.
This was among the resolutions from a visit of the Controller General of Customs , Ali, to the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) in Lagos on Monday.
The meetings, which were part of Ali’s renewed strategic engagement with stakeholders, also culminated in the launching of an anti-smuggling sticker by ANLCA and assurances of support from NAGAFF.
Ali said that his office was ready to strengthen a synergy that would prevent smuggling and enhance government revenue while fighting corruption in the sector.
Ali urged all stakeholders to be bold to report vices like corruption while assuring that there will be no hiding place for any customs officer found culpable.
He advised agents and freight forwarders to avoid cutting coners in a bid to make profit as some allegations of corruption against customs officers have agents collaborators who seek to profit from them.
“We must be bold enough to fight corruption.If an officer insists you must give him money, let us know. We must be the one to ensure that all the bad elements among us are exposed
“It gladdens my heart that NAGAFF and ANLCA have form a synergy with us. That will give Nigeria Customs the encouragement to do better.
President of ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, condemned the multiplicity of Customs functions and interference with other agencies like the police, which according to him, disrupts trade.
ANLCA also requested for a new clearance procedure that will eliminate frequent alerts and blocking of licenses.
Acting President of NAGAFF, Increase Uche, sued for professionalism, enabling legislation to promote customs function and entrenching international best practices.
Uche said, “We are also aware that the CG has earlier today visited the headquarters of our sister Association ANLCA. Let me announce to the CG that these two leading Associations in the total logistics supply chain are now synergizing to bring about sustainability and support that would accelerate the growth of our national economy, which we feel will further help to ease the actualization of your mandate as directed by Mr. President.
“Bearing this in mind and our interest in the success of your major task of trade facilitation, we have before now, made so many correspondences to your office including our last letter in which we requested that you host a delegation of NAGAFF in your office.
“The need to sustain the long standing mutual relationship and the strategic partnership which has existed between NAGAFF and the Nigeria Customs Service cannot be over emphasized. Today that dream is being actualized.
“This is basically in our efforts at carrying out our public policy advocacy role which we have been known for since over 18years of the establishment of our great Association.
“Mr. CGC Sir, as part of our contributions to the actualization of your mandate, we have identified three major steps you need to take to achieve it. These are: 1) Professionalism. 2) Enabling Legislation 3) Best practices Sir, we don’t want to bore you with a long speech, because of the constraint of time. Our contributions, in terms of a paper which is a product of long and painstaking studies of Customs operations, which will be in the form of a working document will be presented to you for later perusal and action. In fact we will suggest that you set up a Joint Committee involving officials from the Nigeria Customs Service with the DCG Enforcement and Tariff and Trade and NAGAFF as members to, on a continuous basis, rub minds to put to effect our contributions targeted at actualizing a new Customs of our dream. Also a resuscitation of the former Customs Consultative Committee (CCC) will be most desirable equally.”