Chairman Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Tincan Chapter, Prince Kayode Oyinlola, has warned clearing agents against what he described as “conceding their gains to importers”.
Oyinlola gave this charge in response to complaints of extortion and intimidation raised by agents at the stakeholders meeting organised by the chapter yesterday.
He blamed agents who find themselves in this predicament of extortion by customs officers for cheapening themselves before their importers by not charging adequately enough to clear their consignments and end up cutting corners.
“Let us be frank. What about some of those things we do with our declarations? We all know that if we do things right the customs officers we enrich their pockets with will not get anything. I say it categorically here today, most agents concede what is supposed to be their gains to their importers which is very bad. For example, because you know that if I want to charge for a job I will take one million naira you then go behind to charge eight hundred thousand for that job; at the end of the day you start looking for corners to cut and end up parting with whole eight hundred thousand you have collected. You are cheating yourself,” he said.
He said that the numerous complaints by agents of extortion will reduce drastically if agents learn to see themselves as professionals.
Oyilola said that in due time, with the support of its members, the association will succeed in producing standardized charges for its members so that there will be uniformity.
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