The immediate past National President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Eugene Nweke has described the inability of the stakeholders in the freight forwarding industry to agree on a source of funding for the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) as the only regret he had in his six year reign as NAGAFF President.
Nweke who spoke with newsmen on the sideline of his handover to his successor in Lagos yesterday recalled that all attempts made with the meaning individuals to fashion out a lawful means of generating money for CRFFN which in turn would be used by the agency to build the capacity of the freight forwarders were rebuffed by those he called the gladiators in the freight forwarding industry.
He noted that while the freight forwarding practitioners got the regulatory body they fought and labored for, the agency could not do much because of lack of capital even as he expressed the hope that the incumbent Minister of Transportation would see the need to refocus CRFFN to perform so as to have a lined up professionals in the industry.
According to him,” One of the reasons why some of us, when we came onboard initiated the cargo clearance dues for the freight forwarders which overtime was turned down by the governing council and we went back again and brought what we called the transaction fee and that again was turned down by the gladiators in the industry, we came up yet again with POF (Practitioners’ Operating Fee) and here we are. If I am having any regret today, it is because that fund that would have created capacity through CRFFN has not come.
“Today, we have a regulatory body we fought for, labored for but at the end of the day, it can’t do much because of capital. I believe that the present Honourable Minister will see the need to focus CRFFN to perform so that we will have a lineup of professionals in the freight forwarding profession”.
Speaking on his challenges as the President of NAGAFF for six years, Dr. Nweke recalled that he navigated through stormy waters adding that since there was a vision which he cut out for himself, he was focused so as to navigate the ship to a near anchorage even as he believed that his successor would actually take the ship to berth at the quay.
“So, there were challenges but with commitment, trusting God and believing in the vision one has cut out for himself pursuing it with zeal, commitment and the fear of God. That is why we are where we are. I can’t tell you there were no challenges, there were some of them but we are where we are today to the glory of God”, he said.
He maintained that what he left for NAGAFF cannot be quantified in monetary terms as the future generations of freight forwarders would still benefit from his achievements especially in the area of capacity building for members of NAGAFF.
He appreciated the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for the support they gave his administration in the area of capacity building and for the smooth running of the RUN/CRFFN approved NAGAFF training centre.
He continued,” In my strategic alliance with any of the stakeholders or organization in the industry, I don’t go begging for you to give me for my pocket. What I beg for is how do you support my administration? How do we make the freight forwarders worthwhile professionals and acceptable globally?”
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