Dr. Farinto Kayode Acting National President, ANLCA
Dr. Kayode Farinto has assured members of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA) of a better days in their professional field if voted into office as the next president of the association in the forth coming election.
He said members will witness a tremendous turnaround in their fortune as professionals that are responsible for the revenue generation of trillion of naira Nigeria Customs Service declares annually.
Farinto stated this on Tuesday at the Tincan Island port while addressing members of the association during his campaign rally tagged Mega Rally.
He specified that if elected into office, him and his team will occupy the new Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu government in ensuring that Customs Brokers are given their rightful due to enhance their productivity.
Laying emphasis on the annual revenue generation, he affirmed “If we are voted into power we will engage the government to give the Customs Brokers one per cent of the revenue they generate because they are in reality the ones generating the revenue which Customs collects. If we didn’t generate there won’t be anything for the Customs to collect.”
He however disclosed that during the campaign for 2023 presidential election, so many proposals to bring about changes were forwarded to bring desired transformation in the sector and position the maritime industry as Nigeria’s second mainstay of the economy after oil. “Thank God, we have seen them implementing most of those proposals we put forward. We expect the Transport Ministry to be unbundled to create a separate ministry for maritime.” he said.
The present Acting National President of the foremost Customs licensed agent said that Customs Brokers have been so marginalized that he will be putting forward eight steps government should take to mitigate the poor treatment that had been meted out on them over the years.
He added that the President Tinubu’s government is ready to listen to freight forwarders, as he and some other chieftains of the association are making efforts to make sure the freight forwarding profession is given its rightful place as a major contributors to the government revenue and the economy.
Dr. Farinto said further that Customs brokers are very important, being the one that goes up and down seeking for importers to bring in goods, paying the duty to government through their importers, while Customs is just to calculate and determine what to pay. “They are not the one generating the revenue, but yet we are not treated well, especially in taking decisions that affects our profession, this must stop.” He added.
Meanwhile, his campaign train which started from Tincan 2nd gate through National before arriving at the Tincan Island Port (TCIP) where he had at different times served ANLCA as Chapter Secretary and Chairman respectively have members turned out in their numbers with branded t-shirts, face-cap in a carnival style.
They made a stops over at the TCIP Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, TCIP Port Manager’s office and PTML Command CAC’s office before returning to the TCIP Second Gate where the presidential candidate addressed a large gathering of supporters and stakeholders.
