ANLCA-NAGAFF Initiative threatened as associations disagree over POF collection

The alliance between the two biggest freight forwarding associations in the country, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) may be on its way to collapsing.

This is as the two associations has disagreed over the planned commencement of the collection of the Practitioners’ Operating Fee (POF) by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) come August 1, 2017.

It will be recalled that ANLCA-NAGAFF  Initiative (ANI) which was conceived many years ago but had been severally jettisoned owning to frequent clash of interest between the two associations was resuscitated early this year by the two associations to pursue the just suspended withdrawal of service over the state of the ports access road, corruption at the nation’s seaports among others.

Only last week, the media was awashed with the news of the directive given to the CRFFN by the Ministry of Transportation to commence collection of the POF on August 1, 2017 and to conduct election into the Governing Board of CRFFN on the 23rd of September, 2017, a development which did not go down well with ANLCA.

In its swift response, ANLCA issued a press release urging the Honourable Minister of Transportation to suspend the collection of the POF indefinitely as according to it, the POF collection is a matter for determination before a Federal High Court.

It further contended that the fee would add to the cost of doing business at the ports more so as the Executive Orders recently issued by the acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo would be jeopardized by the collection as well as weigh down on licensed customs agents who are being burdened already with so many fees and charges at the ports every year.

ANLCA however supported the plan to conduct elections into the Governing Board of the CRFFN since that had been its stand over the years.

On its part, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) saw nothing wrong with the planned collection of the POF as it said that freight forwarders needed money to develop their businesses.

The founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam who spoke in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos noted that the internal wrangling among the critical stakeholders would definitely not going to solve any problem neither would it help anybody adding that it is for them to act in good manner and take advantage of the benevolence of the government.

“We shot ourselves in the foot by exposing the council, now that we have exposed the council and the government has seen there is a lot of money involved, of course, you know government needs a lot of money to carry on with its responsibilities, now we are struggling over it.

“Yes! ANLCA has gone to court, questioning the authenticity of the POF which is their own right to pursue matter that is not in their interest, NAGAFF. Went to court, at the moment, we are at the Appeal Court questioning the aspect of the CRFFN being an agency of the government which is in breach of the Act and so, we have gone to the Appeal court to challenge the rulling of the lower court which did not give reasons why CRFFN should be a parastatal of the government.

“But if you go back to the record, you will see that from day one, even the elected members of the council started piloting the CRFFN as if it is an agency of the government, plate numbers of the federal government are being used, complementary cards were carrying Coat of Arms and so on. So, we asked for it.

” Having said this, NAGAFF from day one, you know is more to CRFFN than any other freight forwarding association as the biggest umbrella body of freight forwarding in Nigeria and indeed we caused an action to bring a bill before the National Assembly before the Nigerian Shippers’ Council under Sarumi intervened and assisted. Even those who are causing trouble today opposed the establishment of the council, so whatever you see today should not surprise you.

On the planned election into the Governing Board of CRFFN, Aniebonam who is also the National Chairman of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) observed that while the issue of the constitution of the Board for the CRFFN was within the Act,  the power reverts to the Honourable Minister of Transportation when the Board was not constituted since there can’t be a vacuum adding that that was what the Minister was doing all those while.

According to him,”He has now created opportunity for election to come up which of course you can see that NAGAFF is in tandem with that. What I am saying finally is that NAGAFF is in full support of CRFFN. As far as the election is concerned, we have keyed in and we have told all our members to get ready for election. On the issue of money, we will also consider. You know we cannot kill a child we birthed, that is where we are different from other”.

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