As the calls for the harmonization of the Customs and excise Management Act (CEMA) and the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Act of 2007 thickens, the President, Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN), Dr. Frnak Ukor has advocated for the total removal of the licensing powers from the Nigeria Customs Service and hand them over to CRFFN.
Dr. Ukor who was speaking in an exclusive interview with Daily Champion in his office in Lagos recently stated that a situation where the Nigeria Customs service licensed the agents only for them to be registered again by the CRFFN amounted to double registration which according to him was counterproductive.
He further said that this was imperative as the service was using the license that it issue to agent as a control mechanism to checkmate and punish the agents who dared to voice out criticism against the operations and excesses of the the Service.
According to him,” one would have thought that with the coming into force of CRFFN, that the issue of registration, giving licenses by the customs would have naturally gone to CTRFFN”.
“When we look at the situation now, with what is happening, if you criticize the customs or anything they do, the management will clamp down on your license because they are the ones that gave you the license, they will revoke it and make sure that they make you suffer”.
“In other words, they are using it as a control mechanism detrimentally to criticism. So, what it means is that once they license you, you cannot criticize them especially in this Dikko’s regime. Once you criticize them, they clamp down on your license”.
He argued that since the Act establishing CRFFN empowered it to train and to register freight forwarders, it should be allowed to take over the entire job of registering and licensing the customs agents as well.
The AREFFN boss further contended that once the licensing powers of the service were withdrawn from them, the agents would be free to voice out the ills being perpetuated in the industry by the men of the Nigeria Customs Service.
“I personally will advocate for a situation where the issue of customs licensing agents will definitely go to CRFFN since CRFFN has been given the mandate to build capacity in the industry and within the chains and then register them”.
Let us remove the extra job that the customs does because this one is an extra job given to them. Let us remove it from them and give it to CRFFN since it doesn’t have much job to do. CRFFN can do it better”.
“If they remove it now, you see freight forwarders, agents will be very free because all these while, I can tell you that the freight forwarders had been in slavery. They are in slavery because you cannot open your mouth, if you open your mouth, you will receive a knock on your head”, Ukor said.
The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has been on the forefront of the call for the harmonization of the CEMA law and the CRFFN Act in order to bridge the perceived disparity in the freight forwarding sub-sector, a call which had since received the blessing of the Registrar of CRFFN, Sir Mike Jukwe.
