Nigeria @60: Nwabunike Urges Logistics Providers To Shun Shady Deals
… Canvases FG’s Support For Freight AgentsBy Mcanthony Onuoha
The National President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, Hon. Iju Tony Nwabunike has urged Logistics Providers in both Aviation and Maritime sectors to always avoid getting themselves involved in shady deals in the course of carrying out their professional duties.
Hon. Nwabunike, in a goodwill message to Practitioners in the subsector and made available to the media on the 1st of October 2020, as the Nation marks its 60th Independence anniversary reminded stakeholders of the need to reflect on the country’s yet to be tapped potentials as professionals and as entrepreneurs, saying that the reflections should serve as a trigger to selfless contributions to Nigeria’s greatness as a united and more prosperous Nation.
The message reads in part, “our professional calling as logistics experts playing critical roles in E-commerce now requires us to think beyond clearing cargoes from the ports and be the chain linking people and business together”.
Nwabunike who pointed out that ANLCA, as the pioneer association in the freight forwarding and logistics sector established 66 years ago, six years before Nigeria’s Independence, cautioned against glorying in old age without commensurate maturity to match years of existence as a body of great professionals, urging members not to derail in their pursuit of success.
The ANLCA National President who charged Freight Agents to continually see themselves as part of the mechanism needed to diversify Africa’s Major Economic hub(Nigeria) from a mono economy to a viable country that generates sustainable revenue from non oil sectors. Acknowledging their efforts and huge contributions to the sustainance of national economy, he said,” our roles in the import, export and supply chain management has made us critical contributors to government revenue drive of attaining over N4 trillion by Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and supporting the Nigeria Customs Service in sustaining it’s N1 trillion yearly collection”.
Furthermore, Hon.Iju Tony Nwabunike disclosed that both sectors spanning seaports, airports, border stations and delivery chain linking warehouses and markets, if properly harnessed holds the capacity for over 50,000 direct and ancillary employments .
” While I call on our members and professionals in our line of business to keep up their patriotic acts of engaging only in legitimate deals and prompt payment of taxes to government, it also rests on the Nigerian state to give support”.
Canvassing support for Freight Agents, Nwabunike said,” we have heard and seen Federal governments interventions through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Bank of Industry (BoI) to Private sector businesses improving on their viability and sustainability,” lamenting that no such programme has been designed for Freight Forwarding and logistics sector of the economy.
Continuing,Hon. Nwabunike cried out that,”aside not getting any form of palliative from government, there is no offer of single digit loan by government tailored towards our needs in procuring trucks, maintaining warehouses, investing in logistics aided technology like tracking devises and fleet of motorcycles for E-commerce transactions in a state of difficult traffic situation as what we experience in Lagos”.
The ANLCA National President called on the Federal Ministry of Finance ,Transport, Trade and Industry, the CBN, the NCS and others to see Freight Agents as professionals deserving of support, not only as potential tax payers because in the event of collapse or massive quake of the sector, the country’s economy would be adversely affected.
Continuing, he assured that ANLCA, under his watch, would open talks with government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to see how the sub sector can be integrated into government interventionist financial programmes and support initiatives.
In conclusion Nwabunike said,” we are a great country with very copious potentials to be greater. This 60th anniversary of Nigeria’s Independence should spur us into more positive actions for greater good of larger number of our fellow compatriots. Let us join hands in ensuring that the labour of our past heroes in bringing us together does not go in vain”, he pleaded.
