ANLCA To Approach CBN And BoI For Special Loans By Anne Ejuka

The Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has planned to approach the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Bank of Industry (BoI) for special loan packages to develop the logistics chain in the maritime industry.

According to the President of ANLCA, Iju Tony Nwabunike, such loans, will help to expand and maintain fleets of heavy duty and lighter vehicles for the development of the logistic firms.

In his 2021 new year message to Customs Brokers and freight forwarders, the ANLCA president said the CBN and BoI interventions were imperative at such a critical time that all hands were on deck to achieve efficiency in trade facilitation.

“We look forward to interfacing stronger with the Federal Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bank of Industry (BoI) on the need for a special loan scheme to help logistics firms in expanding and maintaining fleet of heavy-duty and lighter vehicles required beyond coverage of train services”.

He told members that as the world evolves, new and faster ways of doing things has emerged and customs agents must move ahead as well in strengthening the “chords of e-commerce, online transactions, virtual meetings and deploying Internet of things (IoT) to maximal economic and productive use”.

He noted that with the country’s GDP for 2019 put at $448.12B, a 12.55% increase from 2018 which was $398.16B, a 5.97% increase from 2017, customs agents and every other freight forwarder had their inputs.

Nwabunike commended the freight forwarders, customs brokers for their resilience in keeping the chain of commerce unbroken by ensuring circulation of goods and services across the country even within areas of security concern.

“Be assured, once again that ANLCA under my watch and by your popular mandate, will continue to engage government strategically at various levels to achieve better deals for all our colleagues; “I want to specially greet you for being part of our country’s social and economic success in 2020 as we all step into the new year 2021″.

Our individual and collective resilience in keeping our ports working and making the total logistics chain functional during the periods of lockdown and movement restrictions, underscores the importance of our relevance as essential service providers; Being at work and staying compliant with Covid19 protocols throughout the periods when many others stayed at home are functions of individual self discipline, corporate coordination and selflessness.

This selfless attributes was a factor-driven and held beyond personal gain by you but aimed at ensuring needed cargoes, including medical supplies exited our ports to their destined locations across the country.

As we enter the new year, 2021 we must not lose our guards – A second wave of Covid19 has been identified and detected. It has become imperative that we continue to take responsibility and act in line with clearly spelt out guidelines.

Our colleagues at all recently reopened land borders who were not at work last year due to border closure are advised to take a cue from customs brokers and freight forwarders at the sea and air ports .

Taking responsibility is aimed at keeping ourselves safe and avoiding spread of the disease to our loved ones at home and the larger society.

As you are aware, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2021 Appropriation Law of over N13.5 trillion with a charge to revenue generating agencies to scale up their efforts for collection into government coffers.

As professionals, we interface with no fewer than 9 revenue collecting and regulatory agencies of government in the course of our professional services and will therefore be part of Nigeria’s economic success stories so we must reinforce our strategic role in government economic diversification agenda and increasing it’s non oil revenue baseline

You may recall that criminal elements made murderous attempts at human lives and destroyed part of our property at the National Secretariat of ANLCA last year.

For this, we are moving forward without grudge and on behalf of all members of the National Executive Committee (NECOM), we have forgiven the misdeeds of anyone attempting to disrupt our development agenda for ANLCA and our profession.

ANLCA is strong and indivisible. It is in reality, the mother of every group that identifies itself as a customs licence or freight forwarding body in Nigeria.

As mother hen of the sector, our wings are wide enough to cover and cater for all. I hereby call on all aggrieved persons in our organisation to come into our warm embrace as we enter a new year. Let’s work together as one.

No person or group is perfect. Whoever feels offended or aggrieved by our style of administration should also forgive us any perceived shortcoming on our part. We can explore continually, the channels of dialogue and tolerance as we grow older and stronger” the president concluded.