The Registrar, Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Sir Mike Jukwe has explained the reason behind the recent restriction placed on the freight forwarders by the Council against settling disputes amongst them on the media as well as in the court of law.
Recall that Primetime Reporters recently reported that CRFFN had restricted freight forwarders from settling disputes on the media and the court rather such disputes should be brought before the Council’s tribunal for amicable resolution.
Speaking to journalists in Lagos, Jukwe stated that the idea behind such was to prevent freight forwarders from speaking with different voices, the reason for establishing the council in the first place.
According to him,” one of the regulations of the Council made pursuant to the Act, the Council is empowered by the Act to make regulations which are done by the governing council which the freight forwarders themselves were party to”.
“What the regulation said is that any dispute or anything in doubt should come to the freight forwarders consultative forum where issues are discussed and a common stand is taken. We don’t want freight forwarders to talk with different voices, that was what gave room to the establishment of CRFFN in the first place so that freight forwarders will speak with one voice not when one side is talking one thing, the other side is talking another”.
“So, we have said clearly, it is in line with the regulation, it is in line with the Act that we should speak with one voice, we want less talk more action.
On what the council was doing to rid the nation’s seaport of touts and unregistered freight forwarders, the Registrar has this to say,” we are working on that, you can agree that it is more reduced now that what it used to be before and we are taking measures also to set up an inter-agency collaboration so that quacks and touts will be sent out of the port”.
Speaking further on the training and certification of freight forwarders, he observed that sequel to the establishment of the Council, there was no formal education in the industry adding that with the coming on board of CRFFN, the Council had secured the World body’s accreditation to run Diploma in Freight Forwarding and Higher Diploma in Freight forwarding and Supply Chain Management for the first time in the country.
He also said that the Council had accredited twelve institutions in the country to run trainings in freight forwarding so as to properly equip the practitioners in the field of freight forwarding and those who may chose freight forwarding as a career in future.
