Maritime

2021: ANLCA president promises better deals for freight forwarders, custom brokers

Ranmilowo Ojalumo

As stakeholders in the maritime sector look forward to a prosperous year 2021, the national president of Association of Nigerian License Custom Agents (ANLCA), Hon. Iju Tony Nwabunike has reiterated his commitment to keep engaging the government strategically at various levels to achieve better deals for all freight forwarders and custom brokers in the country.

Nwabunike gave the assurance in his New Year message signed and made available to The Factual Newspaper on Friday, where he commended the resilience of the freight forwarders, customs brokers for keeping the chain of commerce unbroken by ensuring circulation of goods and services across the country even within areas of security concern.

The ANLCA president in the statement promised a strong interfacing with the Federal Ministry of Finance, the 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.

Nwabunike said: “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. 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.

“As the world evolve new and faster ways of doing things, we must strengthen the chords of e-commerce, online transactions, virtual meetings and deploying Internet of things (IoT) to maximal economic and productive use”, the ANLCA president said.

He commended freight forwarders and custom brokers for their resilience in 2020, even in the face of the pandemic.  “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”, Nwabunike said

He however urged all custom brokers and freight forwarders not to lose focus but put more effort to help the country in achieving the targeted revenue in the recently signed 2021 budget.

He said “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. We, as professionals,  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 success stories economically, as we have always been, albeit unsung. 

“The impact of our activities on Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and many others reinforces our strategic role in government economic diversification agenda and increasing it’s non oil revenue base. According to figures obtained from the National Bureau for Statistics (NBS) and African Development Bank (AfDB) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was projected to rise to 2.9% in 2020 and 3.3% in 2021 depending on implementing the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP)

The country’s GDP for 2019 was $448.12B, a 12.55% increase from 2018 which was $398.16B, a 5.97% increase from 2017. All these have our inputs”, the ANLCA president said.

editor

FACTUAL NG is a unique medium in the NEWS Community. We focus on facts and nothing more; hence if it is not fact, we don’t report it; that is why we are FACTUAL. You can count on us. Contact us: phone: 08086654574, 07065717515, 08055441309 email: thefactualng@gmail.com admin@factualng.com

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button