Customs Agents Advocate Re-training of Officers At Commands, Says CSC’s, AC’s Creating Bottlenecks in Cargo Clearance

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National President of ANLCA, Mr Emenike Nwokeoji (1st from left) and other senior management team of the Nigeria Customs Service during the opening ceremony of the one week training programme organised by customs for clearing agents

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The Vice President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Prince Segun Oduntan has called for the retraining of Customs officers at command level, especially those on Chief Supretendent of Customs (CSC) and Assistant Comptrollers (AC) rank, in order to preserve the future of the service and ensure smooth cargo clearance.

Clearing Agents in a group photograph with senior customs officers at the opening ceremony of the training programme on Monday

The number two Customs Agent in Nigeria stated this at the ongoing training programme organised by the Nigeria Customs Service for freight forwarders in Lagos.

The training programme tagged “Administrative and Operational Awareness Training for Declarants” commenced at the Customs training school, Ikeja Lagos since Monday, 11th of March, 2024.

However, speaking during an interactive session on Thursday, Prince Oduntan observed the absence of junior officers at the interactive session.

He said the customs hierarchy should be worried about the pedigree of officers whom they are committing the future of the service into their hands.

“It is not about the Area Controllers again, I expect to see you coming to this meeting with those whom you are going to handover Customs into their hands tomorrow, those are the Chief Supretendent of Customs and the Assistant Comptrollers

“The Comptrollers we are having today, maybe in the next one year, they might not be in the saddle again, the people that should be here are the AC’s and CSC’s creating problems at the commands” he said

“Our fear now is the future of the Customs Service, can you imagine an officer holding an IDEC (Import Duty Exemption Certificate) consignment and saying it is of low value? And he was just given a position as Assistant Comptroller

“Our engagement should not stop at this type of training, we should go back to our command’s and meet, at least once in a month, so that the junior officers would know that if you delay a cargo without justification, you have no cover” Prince Oduntan stated

Speaking further, the ANLCA Vice President admonished every Customs Comptroller to be transparent enough, just like it is done in the Police Stations, and make their phone numbers and accessibility open to the agents.

“You need training for those who are going to take over from you tomorrow, so that you would not be ashamed when you retire.

“Among us as licensed customs agents, we have also trained retired officers who are Comptrollers, ACG’s and Deputy Comptrollers who have come back into this our profession, and because we maintained good rapport together, we trained them” he said

1 thought on “Customs Agents Advocate Re-training of Officers At Commands, Says CSC’s, AC’s Creating Bottlenecks in Cargo Clearance

  1. NCS has continuously built capacity and infused renewed order and discipline in the entire services strata. What the NCS hasn’t probably starts to enjoy, is the understanding & commitment on the part of the officers to reproduce those rare aspects of the trainings on the field to preserve the future of the service. The visible knowledge gap that NCS is experiencing today has a lot to do with the lack of understanding of the basics tenets rules of Interpretation , rules of origin, ACV and other extant import and Export procedures and guidelines.

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