Shittu: Why Customs Needs to Train Freight Forwarders Along with Officers Now
Shittu
*Under new CEMA, customs agents are now Customs representatives
By Francis Ugwoke
Former President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu, has said that training of freight forwarders by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) along with its officers will impact positively on trade facilitation as well as address some trade malpractices in the system.
Shittu said that such training has become imperative considering the fact that under new CEMA, customs agents are now to be known as customs representatives, a development that places on the practitioners more heavier responsibilities.
The former ANLCA President who is also the Chairman of Skelas Group, argued that such training will be beneficial to the Customs, adding also that it will save customs brokers from being victims in trade crimes involving their importers.
He explained that such training should be seen as part of the efforts to reduce smuggling, noting that even with increased smuggling , the Service cannot block routes totally.
Shittu said, “Out of 100 containers, it is possible five or six may be carrying hard drugs. It must have passed, that is why it was able to get to Ikorodu. So, all of us must be involved . We tell our customs brokers, you must know your clients. Gone are days somebody will claim, eh, I was in a hotel, they called me, to come and take this Bill of Lading. No, no. That is not an excuse. And they are now being treated just like the smugglers themselves. But the more we get the judicial process involved not when they arrest a smuggler, they now arraign him and before you know it, they say, within two, three days, they say due to due diligence the person comes back to the ports still doing the same business. So, there must be a way to harness the efforts of the customs agents, the training of the customs brokers and judicial intervention. You remember when Hassan Bello was the Head of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), he had this annual judicial meeting. And for a very long time, customs was not getting directly involved, other than to be invited to listen, looks for a low level officer who attends. No. There must be a way when that operation of getting judiciary involved should be with customs, NSC and along the line with NIMASA. NIMASA is for the safety of vessels coming to Nigeria. But if those vessels coming to Nigeria are seen to be aiding and abetting, bringing in prohibited items through the ports, then they are supposed to be involved. If you imagine the impact of these agencies coming together, then you will know that judges or magistrates who are involved in fining or getting those people indicted will now take it more serious than just giving sentences as if they are petty thieves. It is very very important. The Customs broker is a victim because the majority of the importers don’t get the customs brokers involved from the word go. And let me tell you, from the beginning, all imports are supposed to be by Form M. In days gone by, it was the customs broker that prepared Form M on behalf of the importer. He is the one that does classification to make sure there is no under-declaration etc etc. But along the line, the same customs succumbed to the pressure from the banking industry that no, there is our client who knows about the funding, they start preparing Form M. And Form M is the first level of declaration for any cargo that is coming in. They now do the Form M declaration, they get the invoices and approvals from agencies, including those fake items that are being brought in because Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) must give certification before you now approach customs. The bank approaches Customs for the declaration and customs will now issue PAAR (Pre-Arrival Assessment Report). As at that time, the customs broker is not involved. It is when that PAAR is issued and the declaration the importer has made is written there that the customs broker will say, let me go and make declaration. They now go to the traders portal which is one step to the customs main portal. You now do declaration on behalf of the importer. From that time, you are culpable. Even, if you don’t know anything at all. Because in most cases, when they are doing examination of your declaration, that they find out this thing is containing this, this one is not well provided, and you now hold the customs broker first to go and look for the importer. So, if you don’t know your importer from the word go, from the beginning, how do you lay your hands on that importer? So these are part of the training we are asking the customs to involve customs brokers. As they train their officers to detect, train our people too. Now that customs agents are faced with the new act, with the amended CEMA, customs agents are now customs representatives. Am sure many people don’t even know that. Before agents are seen as the responsibility of the importer. But you are now customs representatives which means you must know your onions. You must be able to classify properly. Sometimes, some of us see PAAR , we know there is error in it. We don’t wait until we go to the field to go and do examination. We send importer to go and amend the PAAR because it is not supposed to be five percent , it is supposed to be 10 percent. If you don’t amend it now, when it gets to the field, they will now discover it and penalize you with 25 percent. No importer wants to hear that he is going to pay more than he has already declared. So, that training is what we need. You say why is our association not doing training, we do training, but how many people will be involved in training . But if customs has a training programme in place and there are courses you must attend or one of your educated staff must attend to enable you renew your licence, people will not run away from it. We are not even saying customs must pay for the training because in those days, we used to pay and invite customs to train us. We need to find a way out of that. Am sure our association is working hand in hand with the CGC to set that in place, including the customs themselves setting up institutes of customs brokerage. It is in Britain, India, South Korea. These are countries we have visited to look at how customs brokers operate. It is like their Siamese twins. Most of the conflicts we are having concerning our operations, you don’t find there. You will see customs representatives attending the same course. If you are talking about security imperatives in cargo clearance, and that is a training from customs for customs officers, why cannot agents also attend such courses as representatives and have the same knowledge as customs officers. It makes life easier for importers. Those are part of the things we are asking from the new CGC”.
By Francis Ugwoke
Former President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu, has said that training of freight forwarders by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) along with its officers will impact positively on trade facilitation as well as address some trade malpractices in the system.
Shittu said that such training has become imperative considering the fact that under new CEMA, customs agents are now to be known as customs representatives, a development that places on the practitioners more heavier responsibilities.
The former ANLCA President who is also the Chairman of Skelas Group, argued that such training will be beneficial to the Customs, adding also that it will save customs brokers from being victims in trade crimes involving their importers.
He explained that such training should be seen as part of the efforts to reduce smuggling, noting that even with increased smuggling , the Service cannot block routes totally.
Shittu said, “Out of 100 containers, it is possible five or six may be carrying hard drugs. It must have passed, that is why it was able to get to Ikorodu. So, all of us must be involved . We tell our customs brokers, you must know your clients. Gone are days somebody will claim, eh, I was in a hotel, they called me, to come and take this Bill of Lading. No, no. That is not an excuse. And they are now being treated just like the smugglers themselves. But the more we get the judicial process involved not when they arrest a smuggler, they now arraign him and before you know it, they say, within two, three days, they say due to due diligence the person comes back to the ports still doing the same business. So, there must be a way to harness the efforts of the customs agents, the training of the customs brokers and judicial intervention. You remember when Hassan Bello was the Head of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), he had this annual judicial meeting. And for a very long time, customs was not getting directly involved, other than to be invited to listen, looks for a low level officer who attends. No. There must be a way when that operation of getting judiciary involved should be with customs, NSC and along the line with NIMASA. NIMASA is for the safety of vessels coming to Nigeria. But if those vessels coming to Nigeria are seen to be aiding and abetting, bringing in prohibited items through the ports, then they are supposed to be involved. If you imagine the impact of these agencies coming together, then you will know that judges or magistrates who are involved in fining or getting those people indicted will now take it more serious than just giving sentences as if they are petty thieves. It is very very important. The Customs broker is a victim because the majority of the importers don’t get the customs brokers involved from the word go. And let me tell you, from the beginning, all imports are supposed to be by Form M. In days gone by, it was the customs broker that prepared Form M on behalf of the importer. He is the one that does classification to make sure there is no under-declaration etc etc. But along the line, the same customs succumbed to the pressure from the banking industry that no, there is our client who knows about the funding, they start preparing Form M. And Form M is the first level of declaration for any cargo that is coming in. They now do the Form M declaration, they get the invoices and approvals from agencies, including those fake items that are being brought in because Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) must give certification before you now approach customs. The bank approaches Customs for the declaration and customs will now issue PAAR (Pre-Arrival Assessment Report). As at that time, the customs broker is not involved. It is when that PAAR is issued and the declaration the importer has made is written there that the customs broker will say, let me go and make declaration. They now go to the traders portal which is one step to the customs main portal. You now do declaration on behalf of the importer. From that time, you are culpable. Even, if you don’t know anything at all. Because in most cases, when they are doing examination of your declaration, that they find out this thing is containing this, this one is not well provided, and you now hold the customs broker first to go and look for the importer. So, if you don’t know your importer from the word go, from the beginning, how do you lay your hands on that importer? So these are part of the training we are asking the customs to involve customs brokers. As they train their officers to detect, train our people too. Now that customs agents are faced with the new act, with the amended CEMA, customs agents are now customs representatives. Am sure many people don’t even know that. Before agents are seen as the responsibility of the importer. But you are now customs representatives which means you must know your onions. You must be able to classify properly. Sometimes, some of us see PAAR , we know there is error in it. We don’t wait until we go to the field to go and do examination. We send importer to go and amend the PAAR because it is not supposed to be five percent , it is supposed to be 10 percent. If you don’t amend it now, when it gets to the field, they will now discover it and penalize you with 25 percent. No importer wants to hear that he is going to pay more than he has already declared. So, that training is what we need. You say why is our association not doing training, we do training, but how many people will be involved in training . But if customs has a training programme in place and there are courses you must attend or one of your educated staff must attend to enable you renew your licence, people will not run away from it. We are not even saying customs must pay for the training because in those days, we used to pay and invite customs to train us. We need to find a way out of that. Am sure our association is working hand in hand with the CGC to set that in place, including the customs themselves setting up institutes of customs brokerage. It is in Britain, India, South Korea. These are countries we have visited to look at how customs brokers operate. It is like their Siamese twins. Most of the conflicts we are having concerning our operations, you don’t find there. You will see customs representatives attending the same course. If you are talking about security imperatives in cargo clearance, and that is a training from customs for customs officers, why cannot agents also attend such courses as representatives and have the same knowledge as customs officers. It makes life easier for importers. Those are part of the things we are asking from the new CGC”.
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