A fool and her money are soon parted

The first time I visited a certain African country, I bought travellers’ cheques. The process of getting them was relatively stress-free; it was sitting in traffic to get to and from the bank that was so inconvenient. The next few times I travelled to that country, I took along dollars in cash. Last week I arrived at their international airport with a fistful of dollars and an armful of local currency.

After clearing immigration control and retrieving my bags, I was heading towards the exit when a Customs official standing by asked, as I walked past, if I had anything to declare.

“Do you have hairpieces in your bag?” He asked. I was indignant, though I didn’t voice it - did I look like the sort of person who would stuff her suitcase with hair extensions? Yet my indignation was wasted as I, along with two other young Nigerian women from my flight, was ushered into the Customs office for closer inspection of my bags. I smiled to myself – were they working on a hairpiece raid based on a tip off?

In the Customs office I was beyond co-operative, opening all my luggage compartments and pointing out my perfectly legal belongings. See? No hairpieces there - or anywhere. The official slid a Customs Declaration form across the table towards me: “Please fill this”. I took the form and quickly ticked ‘No’ to every item indicated as contraband. What a waste of time, I thought, but hey he’s just doing his job. I’ll be out of here in no time. I innocently and honestly filled out the section about how much cash I had on me and bang, I shot myself in the foot.

The Customs official picked up the form, looked at it and then looked at me. “Are you aware that you have exceeded the cash limit for local currency?” He asked. “You have to show me documentation to prove how you obtained the cash in your possession otherwise you will have to forfeit half of it.” He then read out their National Act that supported his statement.

It was like a bad dream. I thought of the guy with the calculator who sorts out my Forex requirements and cursed my carelessness. “I had no idea there was a cash limit,” I said to the officer. He ignored my lame excuse, slid the form back at me and asked me to sign and date it. I took my time; inspecting the pen, arranging the form this way and that, testing different ways of positioning my hand; all the while feeling sick to my stomach at the thought of losing half of my money. The Customs Officer noticed my hesitation and calmly informed me that if I didn’t sign the form I could forfeit all of my money. I signed.

I was furious with myself. For someone who writes checklists, checks and crosschecks information and generally likes to keep herself updated on requirements for every situation, I had clearly slipped up. But there are lessons to be learnt in every situation and I’d like to share mine with you.

Lesson 1:

Don’t take things for granted. Yes, you’re a world traveller; you spend less than a minute at Immigration Control desks around the world, but are you 100% certain that there is nothing in your luggage or on your person that could earn you a fine, a jail sentence or, at the extreme, a death sentence in another country? I advise you to research to find out what items are considered illegal in the countries you will visit. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve been there, you could be stopped randomly – look what hairpieces did to me.

Lesson 2:

Things change, so constantly update the information you have. One incident could result in a change in a country’s regulations.

Lesson 3:

Forget the way we do things here. In Naija we detest inconvenience. We don’t want to wait or queue, we don’t want to fill, sign and date documents. But that is the way things are done around the world. The fact that I chose the convenience of an ‘over the counter’ cash transaction versus the hassle of getting travellers’ cheques resulted in the incident at the Customs office. Today’s world loves data – it likes to capture, track and analyse transactions and it has no patience for the Nigerian who prefers to fly under the radar.

Lesson 4:

Don’t carry hairpieces in your luggage!

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