INTERVIEW: Strategies for Increased Customs Revenue Collection, The Olomu Style – Chukwuemeka

Dominic Chukwuemeka,  an ace licenced customs agent and Coordinating  Secretary of the Joint Association of Licensed Customs Agents and Freight Forwarders , Apapa Chapter spoke on operations at the nation’s premier port of Apapa.

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Chukwuemeka who is also the CEO of DECAGASU Investments Ltd.  eulogised the immediate past Controller of Customs at Apapa, ACG Babatunde Olomu while urging other controllers to emulate Olomu’s strategies of robust stakeholders interaction, timeliness, accessibility and zero compromise for illegality.

He spoke to Ismail Aniemu.

Q: Tell us about customs and licensed customs agents operations in Apapa Port which accounts for the highest trade volume and NCS revenue nationwide

The newly deployed controllers have an agenda, and I think their primary agenda is to collect revenue for the government, prevent smuggling and facilitate trade.

Former Comptroller Olomu just left Apapa Command and Comptroller Oshoba just assumed office. When Comptroller Olomu took over from Jaiyeoba, he saw the revenue generation of Jaiyeoba as a giant stride and assured that he could meet that great target. Eventually, he surpassed that target and beat Jaiyeoba’s record.

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That is how it has been happening on several success trends of controllers. When Jaiyeoba took over from Mohammed, something happened and that’s how it has been going on. I believe that Osoba’s takeover at Apapa Command and several other controllers’ is to generate enough revenue from their commands ,for the service and federal government. This is not rocket science.

Q: Give us an insight. What did Olomu do that made him achieve all that we saw.?

It’s the good environment he created for the stakeholders. When such environment is created, stakeholders advise their clients to keep directing their goods to that particular command. No importer wants to suffer unnecessary delay in the clearance process

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In fact, whether any controller likes it or not, the licensed customs agent has the power to direct the flow of containers or throughputs to any command they wish to use.

The moment a command tries to stifle the environment or they make it not friendly to their clients like importers , the licensed customs agents advise them to start directing their cargoes to another command that is friendly. Before you know it, the throughput will drop at the command of withdrawal. If you usually have like a thousand or two thousand in a month, you’ll find out that it will drop immediately to five hundred.

It is because those that are processing those cargoes to exit them and take them to the various owners, are now instructing the owners where to put those cargoes so that they can have an easy passage which is trade facilitation.

Every controller must have trade facilitation as their core focus. They must think about what they can do to to facilitate trade so that it will be easy for the stakeholders to take the cargoes out as fast as they can. They should also engage them from time to time.

Former Comptroller Olomu, now ACG operated an open-door policy. We could knock at his door anytime and gain access. As Area Controller , he was focused and results oriented. I must say ,he was very pragmatic too.Whenever we told him what the challenge was, he acted immediately to resolve issues.

I remember there was a time when we were told that we couldn’t access Customs Processing Centre (CPC) until 11:00am or 10:00am and we had to inform him.
He asked “who gave that order?”

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He said as long we are the reason why they are always resuming in the morning, we can have access to CPC by 8:00am. He ordered the officers to attend to our needs with early resumption and more results were achieved.

That is a man who understands the importance of the stakeholders that are bringing money to the command. The day he was handing over, he kept saying my “revered stakeholders”.

These are the people that are bringing the money because they will advise their clients to direct their cargoes to the command. If they resist them, they will run away and their cargoes are running away with them including the revenue.

Q: What is your advise to other controllers

My advice to other controllers is that they create an enabling environment that will allow their stakeholders to work .They should operate an open door policy where they can be easily accessible at anytime,physically and virtually.They should be problem solvers and good listeners too. They should try to know the challenges stakeholders are encountering and show that they are capable of solving them immediately.

Every controller that assumes office should speak to all the unit heads about their goals. There’s a common saying that a customer is a king and they are always right. The stakeholders are kings because they are the customers who bring the money.They should be treated with respect. Without trade or operations of the business community, customs goal will not be achieved.

Former Comptroller Olomu told us that no document stays on his table for more than 15 minutes. It must get attention and and we experienced it. Within the maximum of 15 minutes, he assigns the document to the appropriate table that should deal with it while he gives out instructions.

From the regular engagements, he was also receiving useful feedbacks

That is how every controller who wants to achieve something massive should operate. That is why Olomu made N89 billion in one day. If stakeholders were running away from his command, would he have achieved that? No.

Q: Tell us about B’Odogwu under his leadership at Apapa

Before B’Odogwu came to Apapa Command and before the CGC came to the command to address us on it, Olomu had engaged stakeholders on B’Odogwu.

He explained to us explicitly and we asked questions. So, everybody was already waiting for it and it was easy to understand. When all those teething problems started , we coped because we were briefed on time. When we had a problem it was at the climax and some of us threatened to withdraw service.

Olomu called the association chairmen one after the other.He had a meeting with those of us that were available and he pleaded with us. That’s crisis prevention.He kept telling us things they were doing to make sure that the situation was managed.

If any stakeholder still went ahead to withdraw service, it means the person was not considerate. Stakeholders engagement and creating a friendly business environment should be top notch for any controller who wants to achieve this standard. They have a lot to learn from ACG Olomu