As the year 2021 takes off in full swing, the Presidential 100% Compliance Team of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has harped on the need for the freight forwarders irrespective of their associations to unite and speak with one voice in matters affecting them in the maritime, aviation and land border sectors of the economy.
The National Coordinator of the team, Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko who gave this advice in a chat with our correspondent in Lagos recently said that the admonition became imperative as he had noticed that some of the government agencies were enjoying their division which he said was not good for them.
Tanko said, “This one will say he is NAGAFF, the other one will say he is ANLCA and yet another says he is NAFFAC, yes, let it be a name but let us come together, join hands together and fight our common course so that we can achieve a lot together. With division, it will be difficult for us to get what we want.”
He observed that the recent visit of the leadership of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) to NAGAFF was one of the steps for them to work together and fight their common course.
He continued, “I am also appealing to all freight forwarders to desist from doing the wrong thing. We lose a lot of money and a lot of cargo in the process of doing the wrong thing. Let us work together, that is the major thing that we need now.”
On the agenda of the team in the New Year, Tanko who is also the Vice President, Western zone, NAGAFF, disclosed that they would be taking the compliance message to the Eastern zone of the association with the establishment of the Compliance Team in Port-Harcourt in two weeks’ time (next week).
In his words, “We had an agenda in 2020 and we are still continuing with the agenda; we embarked on a tour of Western Zone. We have finished the tour of Western Zone and we are about proceeding to Port-Harcourt, that is Eastern Zone. We will begin the tour in two weeks’ time.
“We had a lot of challenges last year based on the agenda we have; first, we are to campaign to our principals, that is the importers. We spent almost six months doing that, we finished with that, we focused attention to our members and spent another three to four months doing campaigns about the need for compliance. Thereafter, we turned to government agencies – the customs, telling them the need for all of us to join hands and support compliance team. That was last year.
“But we want to go and establish the Compliance team in Port-Harcourt, we are launching it in two weeks’ time, after that, we come back to Lagos and continue with our programme for the year.”
Photo: The National Coordinator, NAGAFF 100% Compliance Team, Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko.
Send your news, press releases/articles to augustinenwadinamuo@yahoo.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @ptreporters and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
