Following the successful conclusion of a 2-day training programme for some select freight forwarders in Lagos recently by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN, two foremost freight forwarders have commended the Council for the laudable step towards keeping the freight forwarders abreast of the developments in the industry globally.
It will be recalled that the Management of CRFFN had put together a 2-day training programme for some select freight forwarders with the theme, “Optimizing Nigeria’s Blue Economy Potentials Through Logistics Performance”, between the 23rd and 24th of August, 2024 at its headquarters in Lagos with the Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy represented at the training sessions.
Speaking on the training, the National Secretary of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, NAGAFF, Mr. Kingsley Igwe stated that he was impressed from the content of the training especially with respect to Digital freight forwarding which was espoused at the training.
Igwe disclosed that the training brought something new in their knowledge pool, describing it as something new.
“Most people here are hearing it for the first time and contents like this is the kind of thing the Council should be sharing with the freight forwarders in order to advance their knowledge and bring them at par with what is currently happening or trending globally because the world has gone digital but we are just knowing some of the digital transformations, the newbies in the industry, how far the freight forwarding has gone digital wise and how beneficial it can be to our businesses in terms of cost efficiency, revenue and all the likes.
“It’s bringing new perspective to what is regular practice in the industry. It means that if I travel to a place like Netherlands, I won’t find it difficult to fit in. If I travel to places like the US, I won’t find it difficult to fit in and to practice there instead of limiting myself to what is existing in Nigeria”, he added.
Describing the training as something worthwhile, he however, recommended that the training be expanded to accommodate more practitioners. His words, “You can see, the hall is small, only few people are invited. I would have preferred that a session like this should have 200, 300, 400 freight forwarders that will benefit from this. So, it should be expanded because the freight forwarding community has a very large population, more than 70,000 practitioners are in this industry.
“And then again, it will also help to bring that closeness between the freight forwarding community and even the Council itself. There are some freight forwarders you will mention CRFFN to, they don’t even know what CRFFN is. If we have this kind of training regularly where people participate, you will find out that whoever you tell about CRFFN, without thinking, they will tell you they know and so, it will close that gap of ignorance and they will also define more of the mandate of CRFFN and so, the people get clearer, the mandate of CRFFN, what it stands for. This is one of it, training the freight forwarders aside making provisional regulations that governs the standard of practice.
“It’s a knowledge based industry, the knowledge should actually be shared just like the session now is actually fulfilling that mandate. So, we are happy about it, I am personally happy. I think it’s something that should be encouraged.”
On his part, the National Secretary of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders Nigeria, AREFFN, Ichie Frank Obiekezie who expressed his surprise that the Council could put up a training such as that given its struggle with funds, appreciated the CRFFN for the training as according to him, it widened their knowledge base.
“The essence of the whole thing is for us to become more aware as stakeholders in the logistics chain that deal with some of these environmental issues and so on.
“I think it’s just train the trainer, we should go back and train our own people. The training is worthwhile and you know it continues tomorrow, this is another forum altogether and I am also happy that a representative from the Ministry is also here. We have not been having enough engagement with the new ministry but that engagement is supposed to be mainly through the CRFFN and that maybe what they are starting now”, Obiekezie said.
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