Sir: The new measures to ensure transparency in the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) took a new turn the other day as the Comptroller-General, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (rtd) ordered officers of the agency to declare assets. This drive toward effective public service delivery in NCS is a welcome development as it is pivotal and underscores the seriousness of President Muhammadu Buhari’s on-going fight against corruption.

Pivotal in the sense that it is nearing one decade since the Act establishing the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) came into force – a legislation that empowers CRFFN to regulate standards of training and certification for freight forwarding practice but cedes licensing to NCS. Today, the freight forwarding reform machinery still appears to be in need of a lot more than a new spray of paint and, this development, experts have linked to unresolved jurisdictional issues between CRFFN and NCS.

Since inception in 1958, NCS has over the years developed into a monopoly overseeing a complex network of businesses ancillary to her core function as regulator, manager, and collector of duties of custom and excise for Nigeria. Besides, the unique role of the ports as gateway to the nation’s economy has further placed NCS at the hub of international supply chain of goods and services. Consequently, import, export, shipping, clearing, forwarding, haulage, and every other aspect of the business of shipping begin and end with NCS. . For many years now, as is consistent with monopolies in Nigeria, operational atrophy in sub-units can be seen to have set in.

But the Federal Government initiative of 2003 was to reform the ports first in a bid to improve efficiency and reduce cost of doing business. The adoption of a landlord model resulted in the concessionning of all terminals and the unbundling of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). Following the reform, the Federal Government enacted the CRFFN Act in 2007 to address one component of the system that is most visibly lagging behind world best practices –Freight Forwarding.

Nigeria’s competitiveness in freight forwarding practice has continued to be in question as touts and miscreants make inroads into the industry. The case for training and certification is strong.

The unbundling of NPA has impacted positively on the ports and by extension, the economy. Unbundling of NCS would add new impetus to the mandate of CRFFN to rid the ports of touts by enforcing training and certification as prerequisite for licensing and freight forwarding practice.
• Chigozie Chikere,
Lagos.