By Shola Fadeyi
Hon. Tony Iju Nwabunike, ANLCA President
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has appealed to the Federal Government to allow the private sector to invest in the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) coaches as part of measures to enhance lifting of goods by rail.
It has also urged the Federal Government to stop the importation of refined petroleum products, commence refining of crude oil locally, and halt a situation , where a good amount of what should have been earnings for the country from the sales of crude oil, has gone into payment for subsidies on imported products
The National President of the Association , Honourable Tony Iju Nwabunike who made the plea in a Statement he issued in Lagos, said there was a need for government to decentralize ownership of coaches to increase the number of such facilities to be used to lift cargoes, from and to the seaports in Nigeria.
He said that despite the fact that the Railways is owned by the Federal Government , allowing private individuals to invest in the operations of the Corporation would make it to be efficient as it will contribute to the success of the take off of Inter modal transport in Nigeria .
Nwabunike stated that investment of the private sector in Railway coaches ,would impact positively on the transportation of good by rail in the country, while It will also cut down on the cost of provision of Railway services.
According to the ANLCA President, ’’ Despite that the Railways is owned by government , there is the need to allow private investment in coaches to move cargoes from dry ports to the seaports and vice versa.
‘’ This mode of transport if encouraged and open for the private sector, will bring about cheaper and safer mode of cargo movement within the country’’.
On the issue of halting fuel importation, the ANLCA President said he doesn’t make logical and economic sense for Nigeria to be buying what she has from outside, simply because she failed to process her crude,because it could not fix her refineries, and has failed to allow for the private sector investment in crude oil refining.
Nwabunike stated that the government’s failure to utilize its natural resource has also manifested in its inability to make use of the cotton that abounds in the country to produce textiles , instead of having to depend on other countries to produce the citizenry’s clothing needs
He said the issue of poor powers supply also has to be solved, for the fact that part of the reason why the local textil industry has collapsed is as a result of dearth of electricity supply, adding that it has been discovered that it is cheaper to manufacture textiles outside Nigeria than doing it in the country.
According to him, the textile industry alone can produce jobs running into millions for Nigeria’s teeming population of 200 million people , while the country has not been able to achieve near sufficiency in rice production even after importers can no longer access foreign exchange for its importation , while the importation of the commodity to the economy through the land borders, have also been banned.
