Prince Olayiwola Shittu, president, National Presidency of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) is a patriot. As the head of the oldest and biggest body of clearing and forwarding practitioners in Nigeria, he promotes growth, unity and stability of the association. Shittu is a known team player and has the mission of transforming ANLCA into a highly respected trade association where members will enjoy the economic benefits of association. He spoke to Peter Ugwu on a number issues.

Professional Ports Reform Committee is Waste of Money
Whoever said that is not informed. It is disheartening that committees set up by the Federal Government have always been seen as avenues for people to make money; where people are lodged in hotels, special project vehicles, gallivanting around with allowances, all in the name that they are working for the government.
 However, the professional ports reform committee (PPRC) is unique that is why I am happy to be part of it.
First of all, no allowance is paid to any member of the committee by the government; government is not responsible for our seating and the committee is made up of gurus from creditable companies and organizations.
We are talking about managing directors and chief executives of companies like Julius Berger, Zinox computers, Omatek Computers, Coscarish, Emzor, among others.
 The committee was set up as a result of the retreat the federal government organized on the state of the economy where people complained about the problems at the ports. So, the essence of the committee is to enable those who do this importation map out strategies to address the challenges, particularly the much touted 48 hours. And the committee has been meeting without the government spending a kobo; so how can it be a waste of resources? I must state clearly that the committee has succeeded in creating consciousness in the minds of government officials on s of time to me.

Sustainability and Achievements of the Committee
That is where a lot of people fail it. The committee is not a taskforce per se. It is a technical one, given to brainstorming.
We look at scenarios. During sections we examine issues like ports administration-how long it takes to clear goods. Ok, why should it take such long?

What are the impediments? How can we improve the system?
We want to have practicable steps to solve these problems. And finally we have come up with what we call five smart steps to cargo clearance; though not yet experimented, because we want to get views of stakeholders in the industry. We are exposing them to what the scheme entails, getting their criticisms.
These are things not done over-night. And when government set up this committee it was without a life span. They said until we achieve 48 hours clearance. Now what people do not understand is that apart from this committee on ports reform, we have another one on decongestion of the ports, though headed by the same chairman. So, when that committee does anything they attribute it to presidential ports reform committee.
 For instance, the intervention into the issue of empty containers, etc, yes, the port reform committee also views it as part of impediments to cargo clearance, but the implementation is carried out by the taskforce responsible for transferring empty containers to Ikorodu. So, people do not understand what is going on. In the maritime industry today, government has nothing less than 10 committees mandated to achieve one thing or the other. We spend our time and resource nevertheless; with accruable results we are happy doing that, because this country belongs to all of us.

Workability of 48 Hour Cargo Clearing Target
We have just designed five smart steps to cargo clearance. If implemented, one can carry his cargo within 12 hours.
Because people distort cargo clearance to mean that it takes Customs 21 days to release cargo. That is not right. There are a lot of activities surrounding cargo clearance. Customs can release to you within 12 hours if your clearances and declarations are genuine; that is for fast-track cargoes, but what about shipping companies, other agencies, and man-made bottlenecks being created along the line? So, we are trying to harmonize the ports system. The new smart system takes care of these problems right from the time an imports dreams bringing in a consignment-what steps he must take to ensure the 48 hours is realized, because if the documentation is faulty, it will delay your cargo. We will soon bring for public approval, and we are not focusing on others that would want to put spanner on the wheels. Definitely, people who are benefiting from the present state of the ports are not yielding to change. We believe that when the process must have been legalized, everybody will fall in line that is why we are not deterred.

Truck Terminals
Now that government is removing hands from enterprises including the concessioning of ports, how do we expect it to use money that could have been plugged into repairing of roads in building truck terminals?
I can tell you that the Terminal Operators Association (TOA) led by Remi is doing a fantastic job. People are overlooking some areas of the economy as if they are not important.
Banks can come and finance such projects on a long term basis, because they are the same transporters that will pay the money. But the problem is that Nigerian banks want quick returns on investment. Therefore, government can come-in my guaranteeing the payment. Of course that does not mean that they (terminal operators) should not strive to meet up with banks’ expected standards. The maritime industry has been so neglected over the years. Bank of Industry does not really have time for the sector which prompted some stakeholders to seek the establishment of Maritime Bank. Those who developed the ports lacked foresight about the sector and the country at large. The areas given out for oil instillations were supposed to serve as truck terminals today. They forgot that ports are not built around settlements; rather settlements are built around ports. And what good government does is that no building is allowed around ports for future expansion. So, if you are now looking for a place to adequately take care of the trucks, you can imagine number of property that will be destroyed. And relocation of those tank farms is not easy, it will cause if not more than the amount used to build them.
 
ANCLA’s Six Cardinal Points
By now we would have achieved so much, but for sponsorship. Nobody funds ANLCA even most government agencies with funds for capacity building are not looking at this sector as important. And yet we occupy very vintage positions in the maritime industry. For instance, we generate money from imports, customs collects the revenue, but without a back-flow. Customs have promised now that they are going to conduct training for us. We now know that CRFFN is meant for us. However, we have been conducting an in-house educational training for our members, because achieving the critical components of our vision is largely dependent on the awareness and competency of out members. We have been doing this quietly and it is beginning to impact on our members. To that effect, compliance level has gone up; revenue net of the customs is increasingly. On yearly basis, customs’ revenue targets are increasing, which implies that our people are contributing more. So the achievement is there. Even if the government fails to recognize this, just like the proverbial lizard, we will nod our heads for ourselves.
 
Multi-purpose Biometric Cards
It is already being distributed. And the difference is that is not meant for every Tom, Dick and Harry to collect it. You must belong to the association, and that is by belonging to a corporate body, because no operation is conducted in the ports by individuals. And those bodies must have been licensed by the customs to handle cargo clearance. But you don’t need a license to be a contractor to NIMASA, NPA, but if you must handle cargo clearance, you must belong to a company licensed by Customs. So, the biometric card is for our members and staff. So far, we have issued not less that 2000 and we have about 3000 to finish.

Return Agencies to Ports and Call of Customs to Order
I was misquoted on that issue; there is no how I will say they should call customs to order. Customs is not responsible for the activities of order government agencies. We received complaints that one controller of Customs had been inviting the booted out agencies to permanently stay in the ports against government directive and the CAC said there was nothing like that. He said that they are invited only when their attention are required. Now the issue of agencies-SON, NAFDAC, NDLEA, etc, what the presidential committee has succeeded in doing is make them remove their base station from the port, which is different from them visiting. It has even enabled the agencies to improve on their operations that turning the ports to bargaining points. Now, they use international collaborations to nip in the bud the importation of sub-standard, fake and adulterated products than chasing importers around. And that is how developed countries like America go about it. They don’t even allow such product get airlifted, they attach severe penalties to it. And we are taking care of that aspect in the five (5) smart steps, where goods will not be airlifted to Nigeria until certain conditions are met. I am happy that they now go to warehouses and make more seizures of smuggled goods, more than they were doing at the ports. I only implore them not to end there; there should be severe penalties to serve as deterrent. Government should have the political will.

48 Hour Cargo Clearing and Security Challenges
We have a number of challenges, but we in the Presidential Committee don’t believe in impossibilities, because it the fear of, oh! It is impossible, it cannot work; that led Nigeria to where some of these things are. It is just like the pre-GSM era. Many pessimists were like; Oh! We have power problem, how can this be done? Already the terminals have been doing 24 hours clearing. They work 24-hours on shift. What we are saying is what stops you from doing your examinations in the night when there is less pressure. Why do you load the trailers around 3:00am and let them come out around 5:00am when the road is free. Anybody who is hiding under the onus of insecurity is not ready to work, because we are now operating on e-transaction. Examinations can be done at any time and how many cargoes are you carrying at the same time. All we need to do is to be ready to do this work. Some people would ask; what if armed robbers attack me at night? Are we now saying that all armed robbers in Nigeria are stationed at the ports. You can even do your bank transaction through the biometric cards without waiting for banks to open. With the cashless economy and the biometric cards given to our members I am convinced that the maritime industry will heave a sigh of relief.

ICT Application in Maritime                  
It is inevitable, because we are can’t form an island in the global village phenomenon. And our association has been on the forefront in the maritime industry to impact ICT on our operations. We want paperless operations as the benefits are too many. It causes interface, creates room for transparency and a sure way to tackle corruption. You cannot take bribe from IT systems; the less people, the less corruption perpetuated. Life has become better for us in the industry with e-payment. We will continue to enhance our operations with ICT.   

Rift Between ANCLA and Airport Authorities
The issue has been solved. Apparently, the little misunderstanding was borne out of communication gap, hasty reactions from our people and the inability of some people trusted with government regulations to recognize the relevance of other people. But through advocacies and enhanced communication, the issues were laid to rest. Our people needs conducive environment to carry out their operations, government needs revenue and the companies want their profits, so need to agree on the best modalities to achieve our individual aims under the ambiance of the law. You shouldn’t underrate people who contribute to your progress. However, presently the communication level has heightened.