Sallah: Customs agents felicitate Muslims, task govt on grassroots development
The Association of Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) on Saturday felicitated Muslim brothers and sisters on the occasion of Eid-el-Kabir celebration.
The acting president of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto, felicitated them in a statement in Lagos.
He also urged the Federal Government to revisit issues that would touch the lives of Nigerians at grassroots.
“On behalf of the National Executive committee of our great Association and myself, we felicitate our Muslim brothers and sisters on this occasion of Eid-el-Kabir celebration. Congratulations to all of us.
“This year’s celebration, even though solemn, attest to the fact that our nation is going through lots of security challenges as a result of intelligence and security collapse.
“Hence, we advise our members to be security conscious during and after the Sallah celebration.
“We as trade facilitators will continue to do our best to ensure that more revenue is generated into the federation account as part of our nation building,” he said.
On issues that would touch lives at the grassroots, Farinto urged government to review the age limit on imported vehicles to at least 15 years from the current 12 years.
He noted that the entire auto policy was one that had continued to enrich few individuals at the detriment of the economy.
“With the introduction in the last 10 years or more, we are unable to produce ordinary radiator meanwhile few are smiling homes with our money under the guise of being local assemblers and manufacturers, it is high time we revised this policy.
“The Federal Government needs to have consistent policy in the maritime industry, this trial by error must be stopped forthwith,” he said.
The ANLCA boss said the appointment of new Minister of transportation, who would start to learn and commence visitation made the industry stagnant.
He said the industry would not move forward with this retrogressive steps every time, adding that it would encourage neocolonialism.
Farinto said that the Federal Government in line with international best practices needed to re-organise and re-orientate the management of Nigeria Customs service (NCS) for better performance.
“Finally, we urge our members to increase our level of compliance to show our patriotism to the nation, as professionals that we are known for.
“We charge the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding to brace up to her responsibilities by giving qualitative leadership and increase capacity building for the freight forwarders,” he said.
Farinto said it was unfortunate that ANLCA had been shouting for long that foreigners were gradually taking over its profession but that up till now, there was no solution in sight to nip it in the bud.
