From left: Vice President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto administers oath of office on the newly elected Chairman, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja chapter of the association, Abdullazzez Abdulsalam in Abuja Friday.

Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents ANLCA has given its newly elected chairman of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Chapter, Abuja Abdullazzez Abdulsalam marching orders to expand the chapter by attracting other license holders to the association.

The inauguration of the new leadership followed the successful conduct of the chapter election in which the chairman was unanimously re-elected for another term of three years by all the eight license holders that currently constitute the membership strength of the association at that chapter.

National President of the association, Hon Iju Tony Nwabunike, who officially inaugurated the chapter in Abuja, Friday, noted that the re-election of the chairman by all the license holders was an indication that the entire membership of the chapter are at peace with his style of leadership, which also implies that he has more work to do.

Represented by the Vice President, Dr. Kayode Farinto, the president noted that in addition to attracting more members to the association, urgent efforts must be made to build a befitting secretariat for the chapter, given its strategic location and importance being within the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria’s capital city.

According to him, having completed the first tenure of three years, the recently inaugurated chairman should as a matter of urgency begin massive membership drive to grow the association so as to reverse this syndrome of having a one-man chapter leadership.

National Secretary of the association, Abdulazeez Mukaila, urged the new administration to embrace Information Communication Technology ICT, which he said drives business transactions, especially in this post COVID-19 era, warning that anyone that fails to embrace this new normal would fizzle out of business in no distant time.

He noted that most of the government agencies at the sea and airports, especially the Nigeria Customs Service, the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control NAFDAC and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria SON, among several others have all embraced electronic model of doing business at the ports, a development that has left other operators to either computerise or fade away.

He also charged them to always embrace honesty and transparency in all their declarations and transactions, as the current ANLCA National Executive Committee NECOM is poised for trade facilitation and seamless and unencumbered processing of imports and exports.

On her part, National Financial Secretary and leader of women in ANLCA, Bola Muse, enjoined the chairman to do everything with his powers to attract more women into the association and also give them equal opportunities with their male counterparts to grow and excel in their trade.

The newly inaugurated chapter chairman had while speaking in an interview shortly after the ceremony, noted that the ANLCA constitution provides that membership is based on licenses not individual person, and that new members must be valid license holders or have five per cent equity in an already existing firm, which many of them lack.

He also lamented another provision of the association’s constitution, which requires members to have spent at least three years before contesting chapter elections, however assured that many members have met all these requirements and would be brought into the fold before the expiration of his second tenure.