The Association of Registered Freight Forwarders Nigeria (AREFFN) has said that it has never requested nor received any Covid-19 palliative from the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) or any other organization except the protective sanitizers from the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).
The National President of the association, Alhaji Bala Lawan Daura who made this known in a statement he issued in Port-Harcourt today was reacting to the donation of the sum of fifty thousand Naira (N50, 000) to members of AREFFN by NAGAFF as relief fund to cushion the effect of the lockdown of Lagos State among other state on the members of the association.
Daura in his words said, “Our attention has been drawn to this news making the round that our association received a N50, 000 Covid-19 palliative from one of our sister associations – the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF).
“We wish to set the record straight by unequivocally stating that the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders Nigeria (AREFFN) never requested nor received any Covid-19 palliative from NAGAFF or any other organization except the protective sanitizers from the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).
“All the associations are aware that the CRFFN has a working task team on this pandemic. It is also common knowledge that all the associations are adequately represented in this task team. One would have expected that anybody or group wishing to assist freight forwarders at this time should channel such assistance through the regulatory body (CRFFN), which is in the best position to reach out to all the associations following acceptable protocol.”
While thanking the leadership of NAGAFF for conceiving such good intention in the first place, he however advised that they should apply more tact in dealing with other associations of co-ordinate status in future.
It will be recalled that NAGAFF had on Monday announced cash donations to the federal government, Lagos State government, four freight forwarding associations including AREFFN, media groups among others as part of its contribution to fight against the Coronavirus pandemic and to cushion the effect of the lockdown of Lagos state, Ogun and FCT by President Muhammadu Buhari as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
The breakdown of the donations is as follows; Federal Government Covid-19 Task Force – N500,000, Lagos State Government – N350,000, NCMDLCA – N50,000, MARAN – N50,000, AMJON – N50,000, NAGAFF Seme Chapter – N50,000, NAGAFF Jibiya Border – N50,000, League of Maritime Editors – N50,000, MAJAN – N50,000, NAGAFF Idiroko Chapter – N50,000, ANLCA – N100,000, AREFFN – N50,000 and NAFFAC – N50,000.
The Secretary General of NAGAFF, Dipo Olayoku in a statement conveying the donations recalled that NAGAFF as a non-profit organization driven by professional and industry passion to undertake effective public policy advocacy had in line with its obligation and commitment towards ensuring professional efficiency and wellbeing of the port users across the ports as contained in its status book, extended its CSR to fellow stakeholders.
Olayoku observed that “during the daily and weekly analysis of the situation reports on the port operations under the Covid-19 pandemic aimed at ascertaining and monitoring the compliance level by stakeholders from the Situation Room, today resolved to appreciate the commitment and efforts of the above listed bodies towards their collective efforts against Covid-19 pandemic, thus rolled out palliative incentives to support them.
“The NAGAFF therefore called on all well-meaning critical stakeholders at the port industry to rise to the occasion by deploying its resources towards safeguarding the port and its users to engender the curtailing of the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
“May we re-emphasize that the fight against the Covid-19 should be a collective effort and that no stone should be left unturned in this regards.”
Recall also that the Association of Nigerian Licensed Agents (ANLCA) had earlier in the week rejected the one hundred thousand Naira (N100, 000) similarly donated to it by NAGAFF advising it to use the donation to improve on its work environment as well as to better the lots of its (NAGAFF) members who needed the money most.
Photo: AREFFN National President, Alhaji Bala Lawan Daura.
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