The two leading customs clearing agents and freight forwarders association in Nigerian ports and borders, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) are currently holding opposing positions on whether the Customs should license the individual or corporate organisations.
While the ANLCA national president Prince Shittu Olayiwola said the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) should license companies (corporate organisations), founder of NAGAFF, Dr Boniface Aniebonam who, continues to air most of the opinions of the association has condemned corporate licensing, saying it has not built integrity.
Aniebonam told journalists in Lagos recently that the Customs should embrace individual licensing if it wants to introduce integrity into the freight forwarding trade, claiming that corporate licensing of freight forwarders has made it possible for foreigners to monopolise the trade which ought to be meant for indigenous practitioners.
“This is how we drive capital flight to high heights and we complain of value of dollar rising daily,” he said.
He stated that a corporate body can only be unveiled by a court of competent jurisdiction to know who is behind it saying for example that the assumption of people is that Ocean Star Nigeria Limited is his company, whereas he is not a Director of the company while he does not sign Form C 30.
According to him, if he was a fraudulent person, he could hide under the canopy of Ocean Star to commit fraud but that when he is arrested and investigation is conducted it will be discovered that he is not a director, so he can now turn around and sue for unlawful detention.
He said that integrity is built through an Act of professionalism explaining that a professional is an individual, a human being who can read and write as well as undergo training and certified by an approved institution of the Council for the Registration of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) .
