ANLCA Decries Revenue Loss To Cotonou Port

The Association of
Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), otherwise known as freight forwarders has decried the rate at which Nigeria is losing revenue to neighbouring Cotonou through the ports.
Making this known to newsmen in Lagos, the spokesman of the group, Dr Kayode Farinto, said that the unfavourable business climate in Nigeria had compelled same of the shippers to route their cargoes through the Cotonou port where they could make profit.
The ANLCA PRO opined that most of the 41 banned items by the Nigerian government still find their way into the Nigerian market through the Cotonou border.
“If the country is serious on banning those items, efforts should be made to ensure that smuggling of such items should not be condemned.
“Some of my colleagues have relocated their offices to Cotonou and the Seme border to assist their clients in bringing their goods into Nigeria.
“It takes a simple economic calculation to know that the revenue that would have accrued to Nigeria through the import duties from such goods from the border is being eroded,” he said.
According to him, the country will be making nonsense of the banning policy,, if the prohibited items continue to make way into the Nigerian markets with reckless abandon.
He therefore, called on the Federal Government and indeed the Nigerian Customs Service, as well as other security operatives to give serious attention to this matter, so as to save the country from unnecessary loss of revenue from import duties.