As the Ports Regulator puts finishing touches to the expected guidelines for operators in the ports industry, stakeholders are of the view that the freight forwarders, otherwise popularly referred to as customs agents, should not be left out as a way of checking the irregularities among the practitioners and a uniform tariff regime, reports Francis Ugwoke

As the wind of change blows in the ports industry, particularly with the coming of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) as the ports economic regulator, expectations are high that the freight forwarding practice will not be left out in the sanitisation of the industry. The regulator has been involved in what concerned stakeholders describe as ‘cleanup up exercise’ in the ports industry in what is expected to facilitate trade in the country.

In the past few months of its appointment, the focus of the regulator has been largely on how to enthrone efficiency in the ports system. In doing this, the council has held series of consultations with the shipping companies, terminal operators, as major providers of shipping services, and of course, freight forwarders, as also major consumers of shipping services. Industry stakeholders are currently expecting the release of guidelines from the council as part of its regulatory functions. Since so much emphasis has been laid on the providers of shipping services, stakeholders are of the view that the consumers of shipping services should not be left out. The same consumers of shipping services are equally providers of shipping services to shippers, known as importers and exporters.

The freight forwarders, who are also referred to as customs agents, are equally providers of shipping services to their clients. They have direct interface with officials of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), terminal operators and shipping companies. While the shippers bring in different goods into the country, they don’t have the time to do self-clearing as allowed by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). They rely on the professionals to do the clearing for them. 

In doing this, the freight forwarders charge their professional fees. To ensure that the freight forwarders adopt acceptable standards practice is the need for the introduction of guidelines that will cover their practice. The council’s Executive Secretary, Mr. Hassan Bello, a lawyer by profession, believes that the industry can only be better when both providers and consumers of shipping services are fair and just to one another in their dealings. Bello promises that guidelines for all the practitioners in the ports industry will spell out clearly how businesses will be done in terms of the providers and consumers of shipping services. This is notwithstanding the fact that some measures have been taken by the council to check cases of illegal charges in the system. The guideline, therefore, promises to be a ‘Reference Book’.

Why Guidelines for Freight Forwarders

Customs agents as they have been traditionally known all these decades in Nigeria are internationally referred to as freight forwarders. In Nigeria, they are so unorganised in their professional practice, and it clearly appears that the practitioners are in a world of their own. Not even the reform exercise in the ports system since 2006 has meant anything to them as to wake up to the national call for change. Over the decades, customs agents in Nigeria have had bad image, as some of them are regarded as trade criminals who aid their importers to defraud the government. Although, they are just agents who do the clearing for the importers, they are seen as guilty as the importers in a number of fraudulent practices discovered against shippers. This is for a number of reasons. The importer is not directly involved in the clearing process in the ports. He makes documents available to his agents who do the rest. It is the agent who is given the task of ‘quelling’ the queries that will be raised by officials of the Customs and other government agencies.

This is where there are issues of undervaluation, concealment and other forms of malpractice. There is hardly any Nigerian importer that is interested in doing the right thing, and this includes many multinational agencies, corporations, bulk importers and other individuals. Most are interested in undervaluation of imports in order to attract low duties. Some go to the extent of forging documents of duty exemptions. Some big time politicians and those in certain position use their position to ensure that if they must pay duty on consignments, such as customised cars, it would be at a rate so much lower than what it ought to be. In doing this, it is the customs agent or freight forwarder that is assigned the task. In some cases, it is the agent who advises importers to advise their clients on how to evade payment of correct duties.

Some would even take advantage of the limited knowledge of the importers on trade procedures to defraud them. They may collect full duty for consignment only to pay less. He plays foul of the system by bribing his way to see that the goods are released, which is simply what the importer is interested in. Some agents would not even deliver, preferring to run away with importers’ money. There are also others who will lure importer to pay so much by coming up with spurious claims that the importer must pay for to clear his goods. This is even more so if the importer is known to have been involved in any form of malpractice. 

Although, there are about five associations for clearing agents, there is no standard tariff that has been introduced for their agents to use. Each freight forwarder charges any amount that he feels like. Even when an agent defrauds his client, it is difficult to bring him to justice. He may simply walk away free, either by changing his phone number or address. In the ports industry, there are so many touts parading themselves as agents. Some of them collect the importer’s money and disappear into thin air. At the port gate, everyone with a big brown envelope or marked file claims to be an agent, and he may simply be moving about defrauding people.

Even the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) which is supposed to be a direct regulator of the agents has not been able to find its feet to do a good job following difficulties created by the council itself and, of course, the leaders of associations over clash of interests. The initial problem was disagreement on sharing formula from fees that would be collected from agents, and this was later said to have been settled. But it does not appear that the CRFFN is sound enough on its control of the agents even though these practitioners were registered by the council. The council was supposed to mobilise forces to check touts who parade themselves as agents in the ports, but this effort has failed, apparently because of the crisis rocking the council.

Regulatory Intervention

As the ports regulator finalises arrangement to release guidelines for the ports industry, stakeholders are of the view that the freight forwarding practice should be humbled to an honourable position of ensuring that there are rules and regulations that can check the practice of the profession. An importer of fairly used vehicles, Chief Edmund Ezea, who spoke to THISDAY, expressed the need for the guidelines for every operator, including freight forwarders. Ezea said people will refer to the guidelines when dealing with any operator, particularly the customs agent.

He said the guidelines for the industry should be all embracing to accommodate the tariff to be offered by customs agents against their clients. Similarly, a maritime lawyer, Mr Kasarachi Opara, who spoke to THISDAY on phone also identified the importance of guidelines for practitioners in the ports industry. Opara pointed out that the first thing the guidelines should address is the issue of qualification for freight forwarders. According to him, the current scenario is one in which there is complete absence of standard, adding that the practice is open to everybody. He expressed concern that even some leaders of associations who claim to be professionals were not truly so.

Opara added that another important issue is for the guidelines to come out with a strong tariff regulation that will be uniform for all practitioners based on the location. He argued that these measures will check a number of irregularities in the ports.