By Steve Agbota
The Association of National Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has said that Nigeria lost more than 300,000 jobs while over 3000 businesses have been shutdown due to border closure which was effected its members acoross the country since August 2019.
The President of the Association, Chief Tony Nwabunike, disclosed this at the inauguration of ANLCA compliance team in Lagos.
He urged the Federal Government to reopen all approved borders, particularly in the South-West and other areas with less threat of insurgency in order to allow trading activities resume with its accompanying benefits of economic growth and job creation.
He added that the reduction in transborder trade is contributing to the weakness of the nation’s currency, hence urgent action should be taken to revive the Naira.
“Shutting these borders where there are no insecurity issues is an indication of non-compliance with the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) and African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) treaties, which we signed.
“Because compliance concerns all of us; Nigeria, her agencies and private business operators all have a responsibility to be compliant. Let us be reminded of these trade agreements. And as a country, we should not be signing treaties and agreements we won’t comply with. Let us all build a culture of national integrity in all fronts at home and in the eyes of the global trading community,” he added.
Meanwhile, Nwabunike has inaugurated a compliance team, led by Alhaji Lameen Aliyu, to help in battling non-compliance among officers and stakeholders in the industry.
He explained that non-compliance in the sector has manifested through under declaration, under valuation, false declaration, deliberate application of wrong Harmonized System (HS) Code to evade accurate duty payments and outright smuggling which have resulted in seizures and arrests.
According to him, over 30 per cent of revenue collected by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) was achieved via interventions such as demand notices, which are, most times, fallouts of non-compliance.