Notwithstanding the suspension of the inauguration of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Governing Council by the Minister of Transportation, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the elected freight forwarding practitioners have gone ahead to unfold their plans for the Council.
It will be recalled that 15 freight forwarding practitioners were on the 7th of July, 2018 elected in accordance with the provisions of the Act 16 2007 that established the CRFFN and were expected to be inaugurated alongside the 17 members appointed by the federal government.
Although their inauguration ought to have come on the 13th of July, 2018 with a retreat for the Council members preceding it, it was however suspended by the Minister of Transportation on the ground that he needed to study the entire electioneering process and possibly revisit, respond to and clear all petitions on his desk first so as to be sure that there were no impediments trailing the whole process.
However, some of the elected freight forwarding practitioners in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos have gone ahead to outline their agenda for CRFFN which they believe would impact effectively on the lives of the freight practitioners in Nigeria.
According to former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Chief Henry Njoku, having been a member of the Council previously by nomination of the Minister to represent the South East zone, he had gathered more experience which would equip him to do better this time around adding that the Council members would have to critically look into issues that affect the professionals and see how they could resolve them.
Coming from different associations that make up the freight forwarding practice in Nigeria, he believe that members would not have crisis of interest as the primary interest of members was solving all of the problems affecting freight forwarding sub-sector entirely not minding the association one comes from even as pointed out they had one profession and that it was for them to safeguard it and make sure things were done very well.
“There are so many things, if you look at the regulations for instance, there are things that need to be done so that no matter the level of association or where you belong to, that we should be able to work together and put in things together and then see how to address them. Like I said, you can see here now that nobody is quarrelling over association or no association, we are here as one body now and going forward, that’s what we are going to do. We are going to encourage all the associations to work together as one body not just seeing yourself may be from another association and then you feel you are not part of what we are doing”, he said.
Also speaking, the interim National President of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders Nigeria (AREFFN), Alhaji Bala Lawan Daura believed that they were going to take the maritime industry to the next level saying that with the democratic way the election of the practitioners were done, going the Council to represent their associations meant they were taking the associations to the next level as according to him, “ideas and every other thing will come up, how to take the thing to the next level”.
On her part, Princess Ezeh Chinelo who happened to be the only woman elected into the Council urged women to come out in their numbers to join her to carry out the necessary reformation that they need to make in the freight forwarding industry so as to improve trade facilitation.
She noted that there were lots of problems facing the freight forwarding industry in Nigeria, believing that being a woman in the midst of men and being naturally endowed by God with power to control and to make things work out well, her being there was a plus to the men folk as she would be in position to correct whenever things went wrong.
In her words,” At the same time, I am urging my fellow women to come out and be counted in whatever that is going on as far as the maritime sector is concern”.
For Chief Ifeanyi Ekemezie, seamless port operation is what practitioners and indeed all maritime stakeholders should expect from the Council even as he added that he was in Council to empower the young freight forwarders to find their feet in the industry as he also was a young man.
He pointed out that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, there was no going to be politics of associations in the Council as all the freight forwarding associations were represented this time around in the Council.
“Yes! We are trying to reform this industry; we are trying to reform freight forwarding industry, we are trying to reform maritime sector in general. That is why we are going there. We need to look at the system, know the people that are supposed to be in that freight forwarding business. The kind of Board that you are going to expect is the kind of Board that is fully represented, both the young freight forwarders and the old ones”.
Lending his voice, Mr. Emmanuel Tochukwu Ezisi noted that the days of foreigners taking over the freight forwarding jobs which was supposed to be the exclusive reserve of the indigenous freight forwarders were over as according to him,” local content is there and is always there and it will take place now”.
He further said,” When we get to the council proper, we will all speak with one voice and the freight forwarding industry will be liberated and the ease of doing business will be strengthened”.
For Increase Uche, the National President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), the Council members would go back to the drawing board, contact the originators of the CRFFN Act and then start again from the scratch so that those mistakes of the past would be corrected and the intendment of those great minds pursued vigorously.
“We are going to pursue that issue of professionalizing the freight forwarding sector, creating capacity, liberating freight forwarders and reviving the entire freight forwarding chains. The business we have to do in CRFFN is more important to us now than the one we are going to do in NAGAFF, that is the clearing house and that is where we will now be taking directive from on how to develop the sector”, he said.
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