Contrary to reports in the media, a member of the newly inaugurated Governing Council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Chief Peter Obi has dismissed the December commencement date for the collection of the Professional Operating Fee (POF) by the freight forwarders operating in the Nigerian seaports, airports and land border stations as widely reported.
Obi who made this known while interacting with our correspondent in Lagos recently said that POF collection came up as part of the agenda for their inaugural meeting but was canvassed against by the practicing freight forwarders in the Council on the ground that that should not take be the first ‘gift’ the Council would give Nigerian freight forwarders who at present had so many issues worrying them in the day to day running of their businesses.
He pointed that the POF collection is secondary in their agenda for adding that POF collection was not the reason why they were inaugurated.
Reminded that POF collection was at the heart of the Minister of Transportation’s speech during the inauguration, he said,” Yes! But when he left, the Council now took their decision because it is a minor thing, it is secondary. This is not why we were inaugurated. We have so many problems which everybody is looking at us. The last hope of the common freight forwarder is the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, they want to see what we can do. We have to solve so many problems. I am not among those who are thinking of collecting that POF.
“Somebody mentioned that and we said no, it is not possible. It came up as an agenda to be treated, we now told them, we are the freight forwarders, we wear the shoes and we know where it pinches us. We now told the whole Council that this is not why we were inaugurated, let this thing be thrown out first, we know the problems of the freight forwarders at the ports and the land borders, let us start solving their problems first, this thing will come later then we will look at it and know whether it will be possible or not”.
On Nigeria Customs Service/CRFFN relationship, the Council member recalled that in the past, customs seemed to be sabotaging CRFFN owing to their misconception of the Council as coming to usurp their function saying that the misconception was no longer there as the service had come to realize that CRFFN came to complement its efforts and not the other way round.
“The very first thing that came up, even the CGs then may not have understood it very well, he was looking at it that maybe these people are coming to usurp their function but now everybody is on the same page. You know the very first thing we did in the first and second Councils was that we disseminated information and people came to know that there is something like CRFFN. It is a very big thing, awareness, then we started registration which is also another awareness. It was after the registration that people, even the customs came to know that these people have come to stay.
“There were people who had not heard anything about CRFFN, even the customs, they will go back to the Act and read this Act. Now that we have come back, it is not the way they received us then that they will receive us now. So that was exactly what happened. So, the issue of customs wouldn’t be any problem at all.
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