As the argument on whether or not the Practitioners’ Operating fee (POF) should be collected by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) continues, the Nigerian Association of air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC) has said that it is totally in support of the collection of the fee as it will help build capacity of freight forwarders in the country.
Speaking in a chat with our correspondent in Lagos on Wednesday, the President General of NAFFAC, Prince Bakare Adeyinka observed that he was yet to see any of the five registered freight forwarding associations that would not support the collection of POF knowing what the fee would do in the lives of the Nigerian freight forwarders.
Adeyinka said, “I have not seen any association that will speak against POF, I have not seen any. I don’t think there is any association that is registered with CRFFN that has gone against POF, none, no single one. I have not seen any association that says POF is not good.
“It is just like when you are asking an Accountant not to pay his annual dues and as a professional you want your agency to fight for you, then it won’t be possible. Let us tell ourselves the truth, how do you want CRFFN to fight for you when it doesn’t have the money? Why do you expect CRFFN to go out for your course when it doesn’t have money? We have been going up and down, throughout the country to Port-Harcourt, to Kano to sensitize people. We are spending money and where do you expect the money to come from? Some of us are using our individual money to fly around, to book for hotels and we spent how many days in Port-Harcourt? We left Port-Harcourt, we went to Kano, we spent two days. We pay for hotels, we pay for flights and there is no budget for that in the CRFFN and you want the agency to work for you and you don’t want them to create an avenue to get money.”
When reminded that CRFFN draws money from the annual budget of the federation and as well could fund most of its programme from that, he replied, “the fund they have from the annual budget is to pay salary, there is nothing else. Aside the projects that they are having, there is no other money given to anybody to run the Council.”
On what the freight forwarders stand to benefit from the collection of POF, Adeyinka who is also a member of the CRFFN Governing Council had this to say, “they are to train freight forwarders. Naturally, the FIATA conference, we are supposed to send representatives from Nigeria and a lot of conferences here and there, we are to certify freight forwarders according to FIATA’s laid down rules and regulations. All these things require money. You could see CRFFN going to accredit University of Lagos, going to accredit UNN but where we have an institute and the institute is well equipped, we can do the trainings. There is standard you need to follow.
“A freight forwarder for the first time, from what we are trying to evolve, by the time you finish working, something will come back to you as a freight forwarder, some percentage of the money you are paying will come back to you so that you will take your document and say, I am the one that did this work, I am entitled to this amount. Is anybody getting that now? No! But what we are saying is that at the end of the day, if we get the POF paid, then, some percentage of it will go the federal government, then, some percentage will come back to you as the person that declared the goods.”
While stating categorically that with the POF in place, freight forwarders would be sponsored by the Council to undertake mandatory trainings that would enhance their businesses, he however regretted that practitioners who complain of inadequate sensitization of the CRFFN’s activities by the Governing Council would shun stakeholders’ meetings put in place to brief them on the goings on in the Council.
In his words, “The point is, we call for stakeholders meetings, how many attend? The purpose of coming to the stakeholders’ meeting is for you to be briefed on the progress made so far. I could tell you that if you ask any former member of the Council, those who have been in the first and second Council, they will tell you that even within one year, this particular Council has achieved a lot with nothing and we just felt that as professionals, there is a legacy we have to leave behind, somebody has to make sacrifice. So, let’s make the sacrifice and make this thing work. We should stop deceiving ourselves because I am not going to be in the Council forever, maybe in another two years or so, I will not be a member of the Council anymore unless if I get another opportunity to be voted for and come back to the Council but after I left the Council, what becomes of the Council? Do I leave the Council and expect the Council to die? No!”
Photo: NAFFAC President General, Prince Adeyinka Bakare.
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