By Francis Omotosho
The primary and overall goal of the Act that established the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) is to determine the standards of knowledge and skills to be attained by persons (individual) seeking to be registered members of freight forwarders of Nigeria in accordance with the provisions of the Act No. 16 of 30th April, 2007. {Fourteen (14) years down the line}.
There are five (5) Key stakeholders and players to achieving the primary purpose of CRFFN Act as recognized by the Act. They are: 1) Registered Individual Freight Forwarders. 2) Registered and Accredited Freight Forwarding Training Institutions. 3) Registered Corporate Freight Forwarding Organizations. 4) Registered Associations of Freight Forwarders. 5) Honourable Minister of Transport and other Federal Government Representatives (The silent players but the determinant and controller of the game).
The Role of Registered Individual Freight Forwarders:
The primary purpose, intent, objective and role of a Registered Individual Freight Forwarders is to attend any accredited training institutions and acquire adequate, qualitative, sound and sufficient knowledge and skill to practice as Individual Freight Forwarder in Nigeria. {See Part IV (registration) Section 13 Subsections 1 to 6 and Section 14 Subsections 1 to 2 of the CRFFN Act}.
The Role of Registered and Accredited Freight Forwarding Training Institutions:
The primary purpose, intent, objective and role of the Registered and Accredited Freight Forwarding Training Institutions is to provide the minimum requisites for training with Standard Curricula, Human Capacity (Qualify Lecturers) and Training Resources (Materials, Equipment, Facilities etc.) in order to deliver sufficient and in-depth knowledge and skill to intending Individual Freight Forwarders (See Sections 15, 16, and 17 of the CRFFN Act). In this regard, the Freight Forwarding Associations need to organize themselves, standardize and formalized the way they use in transferring knowledge to the young freight forwarders and formalized their certification for employment purposes.
The Role of Registered Corporate Freight Forwarding Organizations:
The primary purpose, intent, objective and role of the Registered Corporate Freight Forwarding Organizations is to provide, secure and afford proper opportunities of acquiring the PRACTICAL TRAINING EXPERIENCE required by all students of freight forwarding and supply chain management in Nigeria who graduated from any of the Registered and Accredited Freight Forwarding Training Institutions. Freight forwarding and customs brokerage profession is more of a practical based training. So, it requires the experience of a Senior Forwarders of Nigeria of many years of practicing to put them through as well (See Sections 18, 19 and 20 of the CRFFN Act).
The Role of Registered Associations of Freight Forwarders:
The primary purpose, intent, objective and role of the Registered Associations of Freight Forwarders is to speak in one accord, in harmony and with one voice so that it will be easy for the Council to be managed seamlessly and smoothly. This objective is entrenched and stated clearly in the regulation instrument of the CRFFN Act {See Chapter 1, (Conduct), Section 2 Subsections 19, 20 and 21 of the CRFFN Professional Misconduct and Discipline Regulation, 2010} which provides that:
Section 19:
No aggrieved individual freight forwarders, registered associations of freight forwarders, registered and accredited freight forwarding training institutions or registered corporate freight forwarding organizations shall:
- i) Take their complaints against each other and/or the CRFFN to the public or press.
- ii) Without exhausting the statutory channels provided by CRFFN in resolving disputes have recourse to court action.
Section 20:
- I) Any Freight Forwarder, Association of Freight Forwarders, Registered and Accredited Freight Forwarding Training Institutions or Registered Corporate Freight Forwarding Organizations who contravene or flouts any of the above provisions shall:
- i) Be expelled from the Council.
Ii) Have its name struck out from the register of the CRFFN.
Section 21:
Any other act that is determine by the tribunal to constitute misconduct
The Role of the Hon. Minister of Transportation and other Federal Government Appointed Representatives in CRFFN:
The primary purpose, intent, objective and role of the Hon. Minister of Transportation is to give directives with due considerations of presentations or representations made to him by the Council, more especially the Freight Forwarders Consultative Forum which represents the general character of the subject matter. The Minister might make modifications as appear to him to be appropriate but still must have due regard to representation of the Freight Forwarders Consultative Forum. The Minister can only give directions as he deems appropriate and right to the Council on general character or relating to a general particular matters but not to an individual person or individual case. The directives must only be with regard to the General Character that is the Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations, connoted as Freight Forwarders Consultative Forum by the CRFFN Act and also to the exercise and functions of the Council and it is the duty of the Council to comply with the directives (See Section 5 Subsection 1 and 2 of the CRFFN Act).
Other Federal Government Representatives are just to observe all the proceedings and meetings as it concerns their own operations and consequently advice accordingly.
They are as follows.
1) Six (6) persons to be appointed by the Hon. Minister of Transportation to represent the six Geo-Political Zones of the Federation in rotation for two years at a time, no two of whom shall be indigene of the same state. (NOTE: They must be chosen from among the Registered Individual Freight Forwarders and cannot serve two tenures in succession).
2) Two (2) representatives from Registered and Accredited Freight Forwarding Training Institutions.
3) One (1) person each to represent the following government establishments: a) Federal Ministry of Transport. b) Federal Ministry of Finance. c) Federal Ministry of Education. d) Nigeria Customs Service. e) Nigerian Shippers Council. f) Nigerian Ports Authority. g) Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. h) Nigerian Railway Corporation and i) Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mining and Agriculture (See Section 2 of the CRFFN Act).
Summary of the Composition of CRFFN Council Members:
1) Minister’s Political Appointees – 6 (By Appointment). 2) Accredited Training Institutions – 2 (By Appointment). 3) Representatives of Federal Government Establishments – 9 (By Appointment). 4) Registered Individual Freight Forwarders – 15 (By Election). Total Council members are 32.
Please Note:
No CRFFN Council Members should take himself or herself as Federal Government Staff (See First Schedule Miscellaneous Subsection 10 of the CRFFN Act) which provides that a person shall not by reason only of his membership of the Council be treated as holding an office in the public service of the Federation.
Appointment of Registrar and Assistant Registrar for CRFFN
No person should be appointed as Registrar of CRFFN except he himself or herself is a Registered Freight Forwarder (See Sections 24 and 28 of the CRFFN Act).
Fwdr. Francis Idowu Omotosho, RFF, FGAFF is Senior Forwarder of Nigeria and Registrar NAGAFF Academy. He writes from Apapa, Lagos.
Photo: Mr. Francis Omotosho, Registrar, NAGAFF Academy.
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