Why foreigners will continue to dominate clearing business - Customs Chief

By Abiodun Oba |

The Apapa Area Controller of the Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller Musa Jibrin has given an insight into why foreigners will continue to dominate the Nigerian freight forwarding industry.

While addressing executives of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) who paid him a visit last week, Comptroller Musa noted that most of the companies operating in the country are owned by foreigners and that customs has provided them with licenses for self-clearance.

He added that the essence of Ease of Doing Business policy of the Federal Government is to also make the environment friendly and convenient for investors as Nigeria is competing for foreign direct investment with other countries.

Musa explained that although customs does not grant clearing license to foreigners, the agency has provisions in its laws for self-clearance for established companies.

According to him “There have been talks about foreigners around the customs house, in our import and export activities. We are dealing with both Nigerians and Non-Nigerians, and most of the industries have been licensed. Some of the companies that operate in Nigeria are owned by foreigners, we have assembly plants for Keke Napep and cars assembly companies owned largely by foreigners”

“The customs service does not license foreigners as a clearing agent, but they license companies and they grant self-clearance to such companies, any company can be given self-clearance, it is now the prerogative of such company to decide on who they send to process customs documentation”

“If a company is owned by a foreigner and the clearing outfit of that company has foreigners, definitely you cannot rule out seeing a foreigner following up an entry, it is not our prerogative to tell them not to come forward”

The customs boss added that the law also has a provision for an importer to hire a customs agent to help him clear a consignment, therefore, the owner of the consignment may be working from behind while he contracts the responsibility to the clearing agent.

Speaking on the ongoing construction of Wharf road leading to Lagos port, Comptroller Musa assured that the completion of the road would lead to increase in economic activities for the country.

He also informed the visiting journalists that the command now conducts joint cargo examination with other relevant government agencies and they also issue a joint report for release of cargoes.

He said that with the implementation of the Customs Information Integration System (NICIIS) 2, it is no longer cumbersome for importers to get release of their consignment from the port.

“In no distant time, the Apapa road would have been done and this would translate into vibrancy of the economy and economic activities coming out of Apapa. By the time it is finished, Apapa would bounce back”

“NICIIS 2 intended to encourage compliance to government fiscal policies; it is also for every stakeholder to be on the same platform with customs, to embrace full automation”

“We are confident that with the implementation of NICIIS2, we would work better, when it is time for examination, we go to the exam bay together with all concerned agencies, after this, everybody comes back to the system, once the report is issued jointly, it makes it easy for the releasing officer to raise TDO to the terminal operators”

Speaking earlier, President of MARAN, Mr. Anya Njoku stressed the need for customs to preserve the jobs of Nigerian clearing agents noting that foreigners have taken over their jobs

Njoku also said that there is need for customs service to issue clearing licenses to individuals and not corporate bodies. According to him, it is the corporate bodies that perpetrate most of the crimes in the clearance process

“This is where most of the problems are emanating from, if you look at the form C30, we are looking at individual declarant and not corperate declarants, it is that corporate declarant that we are having issues with and we are investigating who they are, this is why we say, we want to know who the declarants are”

“If you issue customs license to a company, the foreigners come here and register a company, he is the managing director, but the chairman would be a Nigerian. Meanwhile, the managing director is the one taking decisions, signing money and taking money away, so let the declarant not be a corporate entity, let it be an individual so that we would know those who are criminals and hiding under corporate license”.