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The President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Honourable Iju Tony Nwabunike has urged on his colleagues in the Customs brokerage and Maritime logistic chain to think of the many untapped potentials available in the country with a view of making them contribute more in making Nigeria greater, united and more prosperous.
This call was contained in his goodwill message to celebrate the 60th independence anniversary of Nigeria. “As we join in celebrating our great country Nigeria at 60, it has become imperative for us to reflect on the many untapped potentials we have as a country, as professionals and as business men; Our professional calling as logistics experts playing critical roles in E-commerce now requires us to think beyond clearing cargoes from the ports and be the chain linking people and business together” he said.
Continuing, Hon. Tony said “We should continually see ourselves as part of the move to diversify Africa’s largest economy from a totally oil dependent country to a viable country making sustainable revenue from non oil sector; Our roles in the import, export and supply chain management has made us critical contributors to government revenue drive of attaining over N4 trillion by Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and supporting the Nigeria Customs Service in sustaining it’s N1trillion yearly collection”.
The President noted that the maritime logistics chain if properly harnessed has capacity of providing over 50,000 direct and ancillary employments from the ports, airports, border stations, delivery chain linking warehouses and market.
While calling on his members in ANLCA and others in the profession to keep up their patriotic acts of engaging only in legitimate deals and prompt payment of taxes to government he also called on the government to support the sector just as they are doing in other sectors.
“We have heard and seen Federal Government interventions through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Bank of Industry (BoI) to private sector businesses improving on their viability and sustainability no such programme has been designed for us in the freight forwarding and logistics sector of our economy; Aside not getting any form of palliative from government, there is no offer of single digit loan by government tailored towards our needs in procuring trucks, maintaining warehouses, investing in logistics aided technology like tracking devises and fleet of motorcycles for E-commerce transactions in a state of difficult traffic situation as what we experience in Lagos”.
“We call on the Federal Ministries of Finance, Transport, Trade and Industry, CBN, NCS and others to see us as professionals deserving of state support, not only as potential tax payers because the likely quake or collapse of our sector will adversely affect the country” he warned.