History was today made as the Importers Association of Nigeria (IMAN) and the accredited freight forwarding associations of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) this afternoon entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) thereby establishing a strategic business relationship.
The event which took place at the National Headquarters of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) in Lagos, saw the National President if IMAN, Chief Osita Okereke (OON) leading members of IMAN to the pact.
On their part, the Founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam together with the Deputy National President Headquarters of NAGAFF, Barr. Fred Akokhia led NAGAFF team, Dr. Frank Ukor led his association, the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) whereas Chief Chukwuka Agubamah on his own led his association, the National Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC) to the meeting which was witnessed by the representatives of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council as well as that of the CRFFN.
While a faction of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) was represented at the signing, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) was conspicuously absent from the meeting for obvious reasons.
IMAN and the other four freight forwarding associations present at the meeting signed an MoU that showed that they supported the appointment of the new Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd.) calling on Nigerians to ensure that the Nigeria Customs Service carry on with its statutory duty in line with approved standards and procedures other than the use of task forces and ad-hoc Committees to extort money from practitioners adding that the approved platforms should include but not limited to PAAR officers, CIU, Enforcement Unit, Valuation, Investigation, PCA Unit, Releasing Officers, Gate Control Officers and Federal Operations Unit.
They also endorsed the collection of the Practitioners’ Operating Fee (POF) as approved by the Federal Government in the interest of businesses of the Nigerian importers while agreeing that all the importers in Nigeria should pay association fees to the Importers Association of Nigeria (IMAN) even as they called on the CRFFN to do all within its powers to conduct elections into the Governing Council as soon as possible and to make sure that the people to be so elected should be representative of all the registered associations with the Council to engender an all inclusive Governing Council.
The associations further endorsed the Cargo Tracking Note as proposed by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council with no cost attached to it calling for its immediate take off so as to enhance security functions of the government, generate real time information and statistics, revenue generation as well as trade facilitation in the country’s international trade. They further advocated that a synergy should be developed with the Nigerian Shippers’ Council so as to curtail the excesses of the terminal operators and the shipping companies in the area of cheating arising from overbilling of imports.
While calling for the immediate take-off of the E-SONCAP as proposed by the Standards organization of Nigeria (SON) so as to stem the influx of substandard, adulterated and fake products into Nigeria, the associations noted that every effort should be made to ensure that SON and the Federal Operations Unit of the Nigeria Customs Service stop the arrest of containers on the city highway adding that a standard procedure of 40km away from the border areas should be encouraged and enforced.
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