The umbrella body of Freight practitioners in Nigeria, Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the activities of Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) PLC, formally known as Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), over alleged billions of naira owed importers and their agents.
According to ANLCA, “the accumulation of debt arising from demurrage follows the suspension of GTCO from Customs duty collection owing to the lenders’ inability to remit collected funds to the Federal Government coffers, which called for questioning”.
Addressing  newsmen in Lagos recently, the Acting National President of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto, decried the consequences of the suspension of the bank, which has affected over 400,000 consignments.
He, therefore, urged the EFCC to investigate non-remittance of funds by the bank, which he described as a criminal act.
Dr. Farinto berated GTCO for failing to address the stakeholders, despite the loss incurred by importers and agents.
He stated that the amount Nigerian importers lose as a result of storages and demurrages is running high and the problem is not yet over.
“These consignments are still trapped in the ports and agents cannot clear them. Even some who have made assessments cannot pay duty. It is running to over N40 billion now and that is very unfortunate.
“We have a situation on ground where nobody is talking to Nigerians, nobody is talking to our stakeholders, freight forwarders or Customs brokers. That is why there is a need for us to make the world know what is happening in the maritime industry.
“We have a situation in which GTBank must have erred through the issue of reconciliation. We heard that the bank has not remitted some hundreds of billions to the Federation account and they have collected this money on behalf of the Federal Government and that was what led to their suspension.
“The Committee on Customs at the House of Representatives directed Customs to suspend GTBank from the portal. The bank has been suspended and some consignments have been trapped.
“As I talk to you, clearing of over 400,000 containers throughout the federation processed by agents who open their Form M through GTBank cannot proceed further despite their Pre Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR).
“This is because they must pay the duty through the Commercial or dealer Bank where they have opened Form ‘M’ which are now trapped and there are over 40% of vehicles that needs to be cleared from the seaport which has gotten assessments but cannot go ahead.
“There are about 10% of people who have actually paid duty and as a result of the suspension, the status has not changed in the portal of Customs and they cannot move forward in of clearance of the goods.
“This is why we are calling on freight forwarders to make sure that from today the 6th of September, 2022, they should not open their Form ‘M’ or make any assessment or transaction through GTBank again.
“This has become imperative in view of the fact that nobody is even talking to us. We sent a letter to GTBank on this particular issue for them to address us and let us know what is happening but everybody is avoiding us. That is why I want to challenge the EFCC to wade in”, he stated.
Recall that the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), penultimate week, unannounced the suspension of GTCO from collection of import duty payments on cargoes, thereby leading to importers and clearing agents incurring huge demurrages at the ports.
The National Public Relations Officer of the NCS, Deputy Comptroller Timi Bomodi, in a statement explained that the suspension was on the directive of the National Assembly.

By: Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos