The National President, Nigerian Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC), Mr. Chukwuka Agubamah has said that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has enjoyed more peace in recent time than it had done since its creation in 2007.
Speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos, Agubamah expressed joy that the Council had been able to overcome some of the obstacles mounted on its way both internally and externally adding that the very persons CRFFN was set up to serve were the very persons fighting the Council.
While describing the current trend in the Council as fantastic, he recalled that since the establishment of the Council in 2007, the Council had been like a heap in a store with much opposition and law suits to contend with.
He said, “This has been the lots of CRFFN and I want to be frank with you, many people keep asking this question,’ what is CRFFN doing for us?’ What can CRFFN do for you when CRFFN is not yet settled down? It is when it is settled down that it can now be able to carry out its mandates”.
“But I can tell you because I was in the Governing Council of the CRFFN and I am seeing more calm now that existed and even without the Governing Council, the CRFFN has managed to overcome some of the obstacles that were laid for it”.
“And I don’t mince a word when I said that the very persons the CRFFN were out to serve were the very persons throwing stones at the Council. It is just like because when you look at it, all the hard times that the CRFFN had, they came from the freight forwarders. So, the same freight forwarders that the CRFFN was set up to serve and the issue of many people thinking that the CRFFN is an association is very wrong. CRFFN is not an association; it is a council, a statutory body set up by the law of the Federation act 16 of 2007”.
The NAFFAC boss averred that the Council was performing very well of late saying that if it could do what it had done without sufficient and adequate funding from the Federal Government, it was a pointer to what it would do if more funds were made available for it.
“You are aware of the various accreditations they have got from FIATA, they conducted accreditations to various Universities and institutions in the country to train freight forwarders and although I may not agree with the cost of training but I appreciate that fact that these high costs are because CRFFN has no fund to cushion the cost of training but I hope that if CRFFN has sufficient fund, the training cost will be reduced and make the training of more freight forwarders feasible”, he said.
He therefore called on Freight Forwarders to give the Council the necessary support that it needed to attain its full potential in the maritime industry like every other regulatory agencies as the freight forwarders stand to benefit more from the Council’s progress.
