Following enquiries initiated by the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi on the alleged illegal collections by freight forwarding associations at the nation’s ports, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has exonerated itself from the said illegal collections.
In a letter to the Minister of Transportation through the Director Legal Services in the Ministry of Transportation, I. J Uche Okoro (Mrs.), NAGAFF in the letter signed by its National Secretary, Mr. Arthur Igwilo and copied the Minister of Finance and Five others stated that it had not been part of any collections.
It hinted that on the orders of the then Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Alhaji Bello Gwandu, it ordered its executives in all the chapters nationwide to obey the directive as contained in the “Port Order” as signed by the NPA that all the collections of practicing fee be stopped at all port environment.
According to NAGAFF,” We advised then that if any Association wished to collect fees from its members, it should be done in their respective offices. This we passed on to all our executive members and to the best of our knowledge, this directive was being obeyed. If for any reason any of our officials is found by this investigation to have been involved in this illegal act, they should be held personally culpable and be made to answer for such collection.
“We want to use this opportunity to express our unalloyed support for this action that the Hon. Minister of Transport has initiated. We have for a long time been made to hold on to the short end of the stick by other stakeholders in our area of operation. We also pledge our support and loyalty to the CRFFN in its onerous task of giving a credible direction and regulatory functions to the freight forwarding practitioners”.
The association listed avenues of generating funds for itself to include; subscription of members, collecting registration fees and practicing fees on all imports and exports, Imposition of fines on offending and defaulting members and agreeing on payment of special levy by members.
Others are; receiving generous donations from members and non members locally and internationally, by organizing other fund raising activities, visitation, lectures and debates and by involving Association in economic and commercial investment through its designated officials.
“We in NAGAFF this day the 23rd of March 2016 hereby re-affirmed our support to the reforms of the Hon. Minister of Transport and the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarders in Nigeria (CRFFN) in their effort to reposition, regulate and control the practice of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria. All monies due to the Council and its registered members should be collected and distributed in accordance with the regulations. It is our hope and belief that our sister Association should see the need to embrace peace and responsible partnership with other stakeholders in our march towards building professionalism through good governance and rule of law”, it declared.
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