The meeting scheduled between the Minister of Transport and the leadership of the five freight forwarding associations operating in the country has ended in Abuja with an appeal to the freight associations to maintain calm.
The Minister of Transport who was represented at the meeting by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transport, Mohammed Bashar, having listened to the contending parties on the issue in contention, disclosed that the Ministry would review the said Practitioners Operating Fees(POF) with the aim of making the fees more acceptable and friendly.
Speaking on the outcome of the meeting, the Public Relations Officer of the Concerned Accredited Freight Forwarding Association (CAFFA) and President, Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN), Dr. Frank Ukor disclosed that the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) was cautioned at the meeting by the permanent Secretary for resisting the payment which was approved by the Honourable Minister of Transport.
Ukor said that ANLCA was told that even if the Governing Council was not in place to approve the payment as it claimed, that it should have known that as an agency of the Federal Government, the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) could as well carry out its functions as directed and supervised by the Honourable Minister of Transport.
According to him,” The bottom line is that CAFFA, we are solidly behind the CRFFN in its mandate, we want them to carry out their functions, to go and collect the money because if they collect the money, it will help in capacity building, it will help in training our members to become professionals. And he told ANLCA that they have 90% of membership, that how many of their people are there? You know we explained all these things”.
“At the end of the day, the Minister said that ANLCA should be aware that the CRFFN was established by an Act of the Parliament and that it is a government agency and they were advised by the Minister of Transport that even though the Board was not in place, that they (CRFFN) can function on the directive of the Ministry, that the Minister has given that directive, that the Minister has empowered the collection of this practicing fees and the thing now becomes a law, that if ANLCA is opposing it, it means that ANLCA is committing treasonable felony and that they want to close their eyes and pretend it never happened and that any time they do such thing again, they will take action against them. They should submit themselves to the control and regulation of the Council”.
“Then, on the issue of collection, they said that they will now look into the matter with a view to working out a modality for the collection as well as the sharing formula too. Definitely, the fees will be collected because it is a law already. That was what was said”.
On his part, the National Publicity Secretary of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto disclosed that the Permanent Secretary said that he would study the document and call the various associations back for a meeting.
He stated,” The only thing I can tell you is that we had a meeting with the Permanent Secretary Yesterday, in attendance was the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and all the Presidents of the various associations, the Permanent Secretary said that he would study the document and that he will call us back for a meeting. That was the only thing that transpired at the meeting”.
On the said directive of the Minister for ANLCA to submit itself to the control and regulation of the CRFFN, Farinto said,” I don’t know why some people don’t understand English. For the fact that ANLCA has been registered by the Council, has she not submitted herself? We made sure that our members register with the CRFFN”.
“They were talking about some illegal bodies that are not registered by the Council, not ANLCA. ANLCA was No. 1 when this issue of registration came up and ANLCA up till tomorrow is the one that has the widest spread, it has met all the requirements because we are virtually in every place when you talk about seaports, land borders and even air. So this one they are telling you, they are just twisting the man’s language. ANLCA is not saying that we did not recognize CRFFN, we are not saying so, what we are saying is let there be a governing council”.
The meeting had in attendance, the Presidents, the Secretaries and the Chairmen of Board of Trustees of the five registered associations where as the ANLCA President, Prince Olayiwola Shittu and the National Secretary, Dr. Emmanuel Ogu Oparah were represented at the meeting by the former President of the association and member, Board of Trustees, Chief Ernest Elochukwu and the National Publicity Secretary of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto respectively.
