Freight Forwarders Celebrate Emefiele’s Woes, Accuse Former CBN Governor of Suffocating International Trade
EMEIFIELE
*Advise President against appointing politicians as Transportation Minister, Customs CG
*Say actions of Emefiele forced customs to declare
PAAR as advisory
By Francis Ugwoke
The travails of the former Central Bank Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, are being celebrated by freight forwarders in the shipping industry who accuse him of suffocating trade during his reign.
Founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam said the reign of Emefiele as CBN governor was a period of nightmare for Nigerian importers as well as the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Aniebonam said the former CBN governor instead of concentrating on monetary policy and implementation dabbled into trade policies of the Finance Ministry.
He said that the delisting of 41 items from accessing foreign exchange officially was a big killer for not just the importers but also Nigerian consumers of trade goods.
Aniebonam congratulated President Bola Tinubu for his courage in removing the oil subsidy scam and in particular the exit of Emefiele as CBN governor.
He added that the actions of the former CBN governor created so many problems for the Customs administration and management of international trade.
He explained “in a situation where every imports into Nigeria must have a registered form M, this man (Emefiele) did not know that relevant sections of Customs laws provided for clearance of improper documentations.
“Ordinarily the introduction of Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) is expected to be sacrosanct but the action of Emefiele destroyed the programme thus forcing the customs to declare pre-arrival assessment report as being advisory.
“This is where Customs problem started in duty collection and accounting . Instances of untrue declaration for Customs purposes became the order of the day. This is because those items barred from accessing forex are not banned from importation. And to resolve this the customs have to rely on the provisions of customs laws to mitigate the bad situation.”
Aniebonam called on the President to repeal that piece of unguided trade policy to enhance revenue collection functions of the Customs, adding that “this avoidable revenue leakage must be blocked immediately and allow customs to top their reform responsibility”.
He promised that the association was ready to make further statements to help the government to raise the bar of revenue collection and accounting in the customs ports and approved border stations.
NAGAFF also promised to recommend one or two names of competent core officers with capacity and required skills to take responsibility in the Nigeria Customs Service and Transportation Ministry.
He said, “whoever is coming to transportation ministry should by our recommendation must bne a seasoned professional other than politician”.
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