‘NCS must be driven by technology to achieve efficiency’

As the World Customs Organisation (WCO) marks the International Customs Day today, Tony Nwabunike, the President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), spoke with ADAKU ONYENUCHEYA on the activities of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and other issues that could affect AfCFTA.

What are your thoughts on the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) operations in trade facilitation?
Customs, all over the world, have helped to stabilise national economies and played a key role in ensuring security at ports and border posts. In Nigeria, as we celebrate World Customs Day, I would like to speak on the Customs practice in the country and what should be expected from Customs in 2022.

Given what WCO is about and the fact that the 2022 theme is ‘Scaling up Customs Digital Transformation by Embracing a Data Culture and Building a Data Ecosystem’, I want to see NCS operate at a level where Information Communication Technology (ICT) is integral to the operation. I expect that it evolves further and attains a paperless and more scientific approach to work.

NCS should have the examination of cargoes wholly done by scanners and relieve themselves from the burden of physical examination. NCS should be attained with other WCO member nations to combat trade bottlenecks and facilitate trade instead of the emphasis on revenue generation as they are in Nigeria.

The Federal Government also has to release Customs from this burden of revenue generation at all times because what it means is that people are to enforce import guidelines and procedures, but they find themselves in a very tight situation because of the revenue targets.

When the government says it expects Customs to realise a particular target and the volume of trade is not coming as expected, this means that Customs would begin to do double-taxation in a bid to meet their targets. This is the perception of Customs and it is further enhanced by the revenue targets from the government.

As a member of WCO, the goal for the NCS should be to attain global best standards. As such, they shouldn’t be seen on federal and state roads intercepting cargoes already cleared at the ports. They should be able to finalise their operations in the areas of schedule. There is no need to be on the port access roads or other roads to check what they have done initially.

I have engaged some comptroller-generals of customs over the years and they always insist that the goal is to checkmate their officers, especially those involved in the releasing of cargoes. To address this, I think it is high time we all prioritised doing the right things. So, there shouldn’t be a need to have Federal Operations Unit (FOU) or the Strike Force review what the releasing officers have done.

These are issues I want the federal government to look into because the perception of Nigeria Customs Service outside the country and internally, is not a good one. The leadership of Customs should equally be concerned about these issues because NCS should not be seen doing all these activities just to increase revenue earnings.

One of the recommendations from the WCO is that Customs make available the data they have to the public to show transparency, encourage the academia to debate and analyse the data for economic growth. How strategic is this practice for NCS?

I do agree that Customs should not just have this data and keep it to themselves. It is important to share this data with sister agencies and other relevant stakeholders. Recall that the National Assembly accused the Service that their remittance wasn’t in line with what they put online. These are areas of conflict that we want to streamline.

Having some of this information in the public makes the Service more transparent and encourages a better perception of the good Customs has done and still does. Putting this data in the public domain also simplifies the work of the Service as people appreciate how genuine and transparent they are. It is a better idea.

As WCO emphasises digital transformation in Customs operations and the need to develop a data culture, how significant is it to have freight agents trained to be on the same digital wavelength as Customs in Nigeria?
The major bottlenecks with regard to trade facilitation at the ports result from the disparity or discord between Customs and their licensed agents. These are Customs licensed agents that do business with Customs but they are not working in synergy in terms of digital transformation. While Customs has moved up to NICIS II at the moment, so many Customs licensed agents are not up-to-date as they are still struggling with ASCUDA ++. Customs have gone past ASCUDA several years ago, but their crucial partners were not carried along.

I recall that training a Customs broker was more visible some 15 years ago. At that time, there were frequent training across the nation evenly distributed among the six geopolitical zones. This was the norm at that time as Customs had the utmost regard for training those that they licensed to work with them. The relationship between the Customs personnel and the Customs broker was very nice. Today, that interaction is not there and both parties don’t enjoy any deep relationship.

For Customs to facilitate trade and do things rightly in the port sector and border posts, they need to work in tandem with Customs brokers. If they train Customs brokers on their requirements and processes, there will be less people visiting the ports for one problem or another. There will also be less movement of people as the interaction would be online, yet very efficient. People will be better placed to do their jobs professionally and meet global best standards.

NCS has been given a N4.1trillion revenue target for 2022 by the federal government. What implication would this have on freight forwarding activities?
Giving this seemingly outrageous target will undermine the productivity of the overall economy. This high target will place the NCS under the pressure of high revenue collection and undermine the trade facilitation role the service should render.

Pursuing bigger revenue and failing to strengthen trade results in greater losses for the country as investments are threatened, reduced or made nonexistent. The totality of customs efforts deployed into revenue pursuit reduces service productivity in many ways.

There have been several failed Customs modernisation projects in the past and the federal government is set to award $3.1billion contracts and other similar ones despite already acquiring scanners. What is your position on this?
We advise the Federal Government to be careful before signing into the $3.1billion Customs modernisation project, which, we heard, will run for 20 years. We urge President Muhammadu Buhari and the Finance Minister to avoid assenting to the deal because Nigeria is already in serious debt and customs being a strategic non-oil revenue earner for the government should not be tied to another long-term repayment for two decades.

On this issue, we also call on the National Assembly to ensure the Federal Ministry of Finance, Nigeria Customs Service and all parties involved observe due diligence that won’t entrap the country into another fiscal crisis.

Looking at the bottlenecks in trade facilitation in Nigeria, how would this affect the country’s participation in Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)?
54 countries are plying this borderless trade. We are in a situation where every African country trades across borders and what it means is that there is no barrier to any production. My fear is for Nigeria not to be a dumping ground.

Every other African country is strategising and repositioning itself for AfCFTA. I have an opportunity to speak with the President of South Africa Customs Brokers. The country has almost 17 products to showcase; their balance of trade is going to be surplus because he is sure that what they would require from other African economies under AfCFTA is less than what they are going to export. So, the country is going to have a surplus trade balance.

I spoke to the Moroccan counterpart and they also have some products to showcase and all the countries are positioning to send their products to Nigeria because we have the highest population of consumables. If care is not taken Nigeria is going to find it very difficult balancing her trade and it is so bad that even the Federal Government through the Committee has not done much on AfCFTA. As it were it looks as if they used people that do not know much about the trade. We need to be very careful.

The Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are not ready, NAFDAC, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, Customs – with all these things we are talking about revenue generation, if Federal Government is ready for borderless trade and we are still talking about the closing of borders and giving target to Customs it is a contradictory policy.

You cannot give Customs target without opening borders to trade with other 54 countries; you can imagine that we look so hopeless. There is no database on this issue.

Federal Government has not prepared very well for AfCFTA. I told my members to be ICT compliant; that is the only way they can do this business and trade properly. You need to sharpen your brain to know exactly what the whole thing is all about; otherwise, we will remain on the backdoor situation. AFCFTA is still a mirage!

How is the high exchange rate affecting importation?
The exchange rate, if you do non-letter of confirmation you are not going to source for money, you need to do proof of collection to buy money. As at yesterday, dollar is going for N577 so that you can go and import.

Also when we import at this rate down here, we face multiple taxation by government agencies, even importers do not know what their tomorrow is all about. They will now increase the PAAR and if you don’t pay you are in trouble. You also pay other monies. One day importers in Nigeria will come to a point to say they will leave this importation for government to do it themselves.