Mr. C.A.T Agubamah is the President General, National Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidated (NAFFAC). Recently, he played host to the Nigerian Institute of Freight Forwarders (NIFFCB). In this interview with our Correspondent, he bared his mind on the recent Court ruling on the status of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), the demand for more funding for the Nigeria Customs Service, the visit of NIFFCB to his office and many more. Excerpt;
Recently, there was a court ruling on the status of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) declaring it as a government regulatory agency as against the claims in some quarters that it is a private Council. What is your reaction to this?
Yes, it has been an issue that comes up here and there all the time but my own feeling about it is that CRFFN is a body established by an Act of the National Assembly and that simply makes it an organ of the government.
However, as an organ of the government, the staff of CRFFN is not what we call government officials, they are not part of the government’s civil servants, they are not under the control or administration of the Head of Service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Recently, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) indicated its intentions to appeal the ruling of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos that declared CRFFN as the government regulatory agency. How would you react to that?
If they think it is necessary, for goodness sake, let them go ahead and try it. Whatever the court of appeal or the Supreme Court determines will remain the status of CRFFN.
For over five years now, CRFFN had been battling to be on its feet and for the past two years, there has not been elected Governing Council Members for the Council. What would you suggest is the way out of the current stagnation that is now the lot of CRFFN?
I don’t see much obstacles so long as there is a political will, the strength of will for the government or let us say the National Assembly which gave birth to CRFFN to give it the full backing and get it properly established.
CRFFN is supposed to be a regulatory agency for freight forwarding in Nigeria. A regulatory agency in this country is supposed to be arm of the government. I remember that the whole problem started or rather reached the climax in 2012 when the major source of revenue for CRFFN was contested by some persons making it difficult for CRFFN to do most of the things it was supposed to do or to be doing.
So, I think it is the responsibility of the Minister to give the necessary orders that will get the CRFFN moving ahead through the collection of funds that it should collect.
I know that the problem is the conflict that some associations see in the CRFFN collecting the money. For us at NAFFAC, it is not a problem because whatever budget allowed us by CRFFN to operate with, we shall make do with it to the benefit of our members. And generally speaking, the problem has been more of ego tricks than objectivity.
Some people have argued that the 7 percent accruing to the Nigeria Customs Service from the total revenue it collects yearly be replaced with 5 to 7 percent of Free-On-Board (FOB) value of the total import in the country to enable it have more funds for its operation. What is your position on the matter?
You see, there are certain things that we at NAFFAC don’t like commenting on. NAFFAC doesn’t like commenting on fiscal policies because groups like Chambers of Commerce, NACCIMA and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, those are the appropriate bodies that should look into those fiscal measure but we are like people who should carry out fiscal orders of the government. We do not believe in fact that it is our business to start contesting those issues, just like our attitude on some charges that are not fiscal in nature, those ones that are not fiscal in nature by the government, we contest them.
We cannot go and contest that this item should be ten percent or fifteen percent, it is the importers or traders that are involved that should be contesting it because at the end of the day, we want to make it cheaper for the ordinary man on the street.
But what the associations should be contesting are charges, spurious charges by the shipping lines, cargo handling companies or any other agencies that collect money for no services rendered because those charges also affect us the freight forwarders.
Fiscal policies should be dealt with by the appropriate organizations in Nigeria, freight forwarders should keep away from such policies.
How would you assess the visit of the Nigerian Institute of Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers to your Secretariat today?
It is quite okay, it is quite in order.
Are you going to mobilize your members to key into the vision of the institute, or would you do otherwise?
Of course, we shall inform our members straight away. By Friday, many of them across the country will receive our e-mail to that effect.
NIMASA recently issued a Marine Notice saying that it will not accept or recognize any Certificate issued by Maritime training centres that it did not accredit. Two of the institutions accredited by the Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria to run training for it did not make the list of the institutions that NIMASA said it recognized. How would this impact on the industry?
There is no conflict between the responsibilities of CRFFN and that of NIMASA. NIMASA is saddled with the responsibility of training mariners like ship captains and ship crew. If NIMASA is not accepting the training of certain institutions, it has nothing to do with freight forwarding.
I know that, let me be specific, for example, MAN, Oron had been accredited by the CRFFN to teach freight forwarding, CRFFN did not accredit it to teach shipping or marine services, they are different things.
So, if NIMASA takes care of institutions handling maritime man-power whereas the CRFFN has to do with Freight forwarding.
How would assess the freight forwarding industry in the first half of this year?
I don’t have any statistics to go by. I am sorry I cannot answer you.
