The National Publicity Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr. Kayode Farinto has described as laughable the calls by the Concerned Accredited Freight Forwarding Associations (CAFFA) to the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to deregister ANLCA.
Recall that CAFFA, a conglomeration of four out of the five freight forwarding associations registered by the CRFFN namely; the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), the National Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC) and the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) had petitioned the Minister of Transport and copied the CRFFN calling for deregistration of ANLCA for its refusal to comply with the CRFFN on the collection of Practitioners’ Operating Fees (POF) and for allegedly attacking CRFFN officials at the Seme Border.
But in a press statement issued by Dr. Farinto, a copy of which was made available to Primetime Reporters reiterated that CAFFA was an illegal body which he said that ANLCA would not discuss with advising CAFFA to go ahead and collect the money from its members only if it was so bent on collecting the POF.
According to him,” ANLCA will not complain about this and they should also be careful with their outburst. If not, we wouldn’t have choice rather than to expose how they got their provisional registration. It is only ANLCA that has met all the pre-requisite during the registration of association, but these four associations under CAFFA: National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) and National Association of Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC) were given provisional registration through the back door”.
“It however, amuse us whenever we hear that these same people that were given provisional registration are calling for deregistration of ANLCA. We are the only democratic association with a wide spread in all the geographical location across Nigeria”.
“We wish to say unequivocally that CAFFA should go ahead and collect the Practitioners’ Operating Fees (POF) from their members only, if they actually have. ANLCA is currently busy with the development of the sector, one of which is the Common External Tariff (CET) and the adverse effects of its implementation and not trivial issues like the POF”.
