ANLCA secures full release of seized licenses – as Customs begins verification

National President of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Tony Iju Nwabunike has said that the association has now secured full release of the over 300 clearing licenses belonging to his members from Nigeria Customs Service.

The licenses, including that of the ANLCA National President, were shut down by the Nigeria Customs Service after they were reportedly hacked by criminals to release vehicles and other cargoes illegally from the port.

Meanwhile, our correspondent who visited the port yesterday gathered that the Nigeria Customs has commenced the 2019 verification exercise of all practicing licenses at the ports.

The exercise is to determine the genuineness of clearing licenses in operation, as well as ensure that information such as office addresses provided by the clearing agents are real.

Speaking with our correspondent, the ANLCA president said “Right now, all the licenses have been released, in fact, with a letter written to us.
We have also been having letters coming from our members congratulating us”

“The seizure has been in batches, it all started before I came onboard, we inherited it from the former president, but now the last batch has been released. The last released was 50”

“We have cautioned our members to be very secretive with their passwords, I know that nobody would like to mess with his password, but Web Fontaine, the company that sets up these automation system, most of the boys have gone out of job and you know what this means.
Our members are  more careful now and the license is dare to them”

“One of the criteria is that now that the licenses have been reopened, you need to go and  renew it” he said

Currently, a high powered delegation from the Customs headquarter in Abuja has been deployed to Lagos ports namely; Apapa, Tin Can, Seme and Murtala Muhammed Airport chapters of ANLCA for the verification exercise.

The Customs team is expected to verify and investigate addresses of the agents to ensure they tally with what they submitted with the Service.

The certificate issued to agents at the end of the investigation shall become one of the requirements to renew licenses for 2020