The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has thrown its weight behind calls in some quarters for the harmonization of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) and the CRFFN Act to create room for uniformity in the Freight Forwarding sector.
Yo may recall that the National Coordinator, Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders, Importers and Exporters Coalition (SNIFFIEC), Chief Dr. Osita Patrick Chukwu at a public forum in Lagos recently had advocated that the licensing regulations of the Nigeria Customs Service be withdrawn from it and be handed over to the CRFFN which was aptly empowered by the Act establishing it to train, certify and license individuals and companies to practice the Freight Forwarding as a profession.
Dr. Chukwu was not alone in this advocacy as the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) recently in a letter it addressed to the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar and his Finance counterpart, Dr. Ngozi okonjo-Iweala also called for the harmonization of both Acts in order for the practitioners to achieve a unity of purpose.
NAGAFF contended that whereas the customs law recognized corporate bodies licensed by customs, primarily, the CRFFN Act laid emphasis on the individual whose name appear in its register of freight forwarding.
It also figured out that the two legislative instruments appeared to be in conflict owing to the fact that CEMA may not have recognized the nomenclature of Freight Forwarding practice but licensed customs agents and importers/exporters adding that freight forwarding as a profession may not materialize in reality and practice if CEMA and CRFFN operators did not sit down to harmonize positions.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Champion, the Registrar of CRFFN, Sir Mike Jukwe disclosed that although the Customs licensed its agents while CRFFN took care of both the licensed customs agents as well as the freight forwarders, the trend had created some problems with the CREMA and then the CRFFN Act in the sense that it appeared to a distinction between the freight forwarders and the clearing agents.
Jukwe pointed out that a cursory look at the CRFFN Act, one would notice that the perceived distinction between the freight forwarders and the customs licensed agents had be taken care of b y Section 19 (1) and (2) of the CRFFN Act.
He went on to explain that even though Service gave licenses to its agents while the CRFFN registers the both of them, it did not undermine the fact that the customs licensed agents was one aspect of freight forwarding which according to him was a very a long chain from the time one placed his order to the time the consignment got to the final destination.
The Registrar however stated that licensing of its agents by the Nigeria Customs service should not be a problem to the stakeholders except where some people had vested interests.
“A clearing agent is also a freight forwarder. If you want to perform the role of Licensed customs agent, you go to customs and get licensed and perform that role. We expect that that should be very clear”.
“However, I also support the idea that from time to time, there is the need for all of us, the stakeholders and practitioners to sit down and discuss this issue and let there be harmony and we move ahead as one body than the artificial distinction and demarcation that people are trying to create here and there for their own selfish interests”, Jukwe said.
