Nigeria’s Vice President, Architect Namadi Sambo is expected in Lagos on Friday next week to formally commission the new ultra-modern permanent national secretariat of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA).
ANLCA National President, Prince Olayiwola Shittu who disclosed this to SHIPS & PORTS DAILY, said the event will form part of activities marking the 60th anniversary of the association.
“What we have done now is that since leaders before now never thought it necessary for us to have a permanent secretariat, we felt we needed it because of our international exposure.
“ANLCA today has been made the West and Central Africa regional headquarters of the International Federation of Customs Brokers Associations, so we need a place. Other than go to the ECOWAS secretariat in Abuja, we need our national secretariat to accommodate this regional secretariat.
“We also need to practice professionalism and in the new secretariat we have our research and development department. We are employing people, we are promoting people and we have even gotten a new Director-General.
“That is how a professional association is expected to be and not a place where all you do is come around, drink beer, make noise and party,” the ANLCA leader stated.
Shittu said that unlike other associations, ANLCA was established by an Act of Parliament in 1954 and is currently made up of over 20,000 professional Customs Brokers who are licensed by the Nigeria Customs Service and are responsible for clearing and forwarding of goods at the airports, seaports and land borders.
Apart from Sambo, other dignitaries expected at the commissioning of the secretariat, according to Shittu, include Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Minister of Transport, Sen. Idris Umar; Senior Special Adviser to the President on Maritime Services, Mr. Leke Oyewole and the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Dikko Inde Abdullahi. Others are the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority Mallam Habib Abdullahi, Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi and Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Barr. Hassan Bello.
Shittu also disclosed that the disagreement between the national executives and Board of Trustees members over conduct of the association’s recent election has been resolved.
“There is no rift anywhere in ANLCA as I am talking to you. Even those that have gone to court have declared that we are one. You know in the heat of anger, chances are that people will take some positions, only to realize that those positions are not worthy of being pursued,” he stated
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