The President General, National Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC), Mr. Chukwuka Ani Thomas Agubamah has decried the situation where the five registered freight forwarding associations were locked out of the beneficiaries of the proposed sharing formula for the yet to be collected Practitioners’ Operating Fee (POF) describing it as unfair.
Agubamah who made his feeling known in a chat with our correspondent in Lagos said the decision to leave the association out of the sharing formula had turned the associations into professional beggars as they now had to appeal to the loyalty of their members for their survival.
He pointed out that without access to the POF, the associations could hardly survive on the monthly subscription from heir members as the cost of running the associations increases by the day.
In his words,”The next issue is that this situation has left the associations high and dry, they will have to appeal to the loyalty of their members. If a member refuses to join the association, there is nothing one can do about it because it is not mandatory that a freight forwarder must be a member of any association.
“So, the whole thing is appeal, as we looked at it at NAFFAC, an appeal to the loyalty of members. If there is a better arrangement to make the associations benefit directly from the POF, that will be fine. Without access to this revenue, the associations cannot survive on the monthly subscription, no association will survive on it.
“Remember, we are in freight forwarding business in this country, I don’t know how much ANLCA collects per annum on annual dues of their members, I do not think their members will collect enough annual dues to maintain that their Secretariat at Amuwo-Odofin. Our annual subscription at NAFFAC is not enough to pay the rent of this place not to take of maintaining the secretariat and its staff.
“I think the associations need revenue much more than whatever their members contribute through membership dues or annual subscriptions as the case may be”.
He however informed that members of NAFFAC had agreed to take 10% out of the 35% to be given to the declarants by the government thereby leaving the remaining 25% for the association saying that if there was an upward review of the sharing formula to enable associations get more, it would be welcomed.
“Our members have opted that NAFFAC take 25% and the declarant company 10% but if there is an upward review of the whole arrangement to enable the associations get more, that is okay. The Minister and his panel have said they were allowing the declarant to take 35%, that is their decision. So, if the declarant decides to say please give it to my association, that is welcomed.The central issue now is how do the associations get the benefit of the 35%. To me, that is the central issue now and not who is the declarant”, he said.
The Ministry of Transportation had earlier approved the sharing formula for the yet to be collected POF to be 65% for the government through the CRFFN and 35% to the declarant and nothing for the associations thus the reason for this appeal for the associations to be factored into the sharing formula.
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