Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON) has advised freight forwarders to join forces with the Civil Society groups, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other trade unions to redeem the masses from the excruciating economic situation which, in his words, is clearly as a result of sheer incompetence on the side of the current managers of the economy.
The APFFLON National President, Otunba Frank Ogunojemite berated the Ministry of Finance and the CBN for losing control of the Naira which has warranted its free fall.
He regreted the level of hardship being experienced by Nigerians, saying that the continued upward revision of Customs Duty Exchange Rate would continue to hit harder on the masses who are the end users .
He however, absolved the Nigeria Customs Service of culpability in the duty hike.
Ogunojemite stated that the increase in customs duties is beyond the control of the Nigeria Customs Service as it’s rather a deliberate action by the Federal Ministry of Finance.
In his words: “Customs has no hand in the continued increase in tariff, it should be blamed on the CBN under the watch of Mr. Olayemi Cardozo and his counterparts at the Federal Ministry of Finance. What we are witnessing today is as a result of sheer incompetence on the side of those managing our economy. Businesses are dying, manufacturers are shutting down. The ports are almost deserted because freight forwarders have no jobs any more.
“Economy experts have said that the hike would have huge implications on the prices of imported goods already being pressured by surging inflation.
“The recent increase is about the fifth exchange rate adjustment the port industry has witnessed after the service started the implementation of the floating foreign exchange rate regime by the Central Bank of Nigeria in July 2023 and fifth since the coming into power of the new government.”
Recall that twice in two straight months, CBN has raised Customs duty from N951.941 per dollar to N1. 356 /$, a development that requires that the importers raise more funds to clear their cargoes at the seaport, airport and land borders.
Information obtained from Customs Website hinted that the exchange rate for cargo clearing was adjusted by 45.5%.
Unexpectedly, last Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after the N1,356 increase, Customs Duty Exchange Rate was jerked up again to N1,413/$, causing confusion for freight forwarders and their importers.
On server failure, Ogunojemite noted that attitude of the ministry of finance towards redeeming the economic situation has increasingly proven to be lukewarm.
Berating the ministry for upholding a contractual agreement with Web Fontaine, he noted that outfit has only succeeded in making nonsense of the federal government policy on Ease of Doing Business (EoDB).
Ogunojemite held that “until the Ministry of Finance resolves to get essential service providers commit to compensation agreement or have their contracts revoked, the likes of Web Fontaine will continue to take Nigerians for granted. If nothing is done to keep them on their toes, and also address the challenges posed by the perennial Apapa gridlock, the core essence of the Federal Government’s policy on Ease of Doing Business will never be actualized.”