Freight Forwarding is no longer an all comers affair, Nwabunike

MR. Iju T. Nwabunike, is the chairman, Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria. In this interview with Moses Nosike of Saturday Vanguard Business, he took time to explain challenges encountered during his growing-up and background, but in all, he said he was determined not to give up despite all odds, until success  was achieved.

How was your growing-up like?
First and foremost, my growing-up was not blissful because I was born into a very large family.  My father married four wives as custom demanded, but he wedded with my mother on May 27, 1947 being the first wife.

Coming from a large family set up, who impacted much to see that you survived  on your choice of career?
I can give it to my mother and my grand mother. Actually, my father tried, but the most of my childhood was extremely taken care of by my mother and my grand mother. So it’s a difficult one. It was not blissful. I couldn’t play around with my fellow kids and friend because my road to success was very rough and harsh.

However, I was in the streets, hawking bread, selling kerosine, going to serve brick layers with sand and blocks wherever constructions works were taking place during my holidays.

That condition made it difficult for me to socialise because I would be busy helping my mother. But be that  as it may, I actually excelled. One thing God did for me was He gave me a retentive memory, the little time I had to study my books in school,  I made sure I passed very well. But I was highly challenged with things of life.
Now that you’re into Freight Forwarding, what informed your choice of career?

In those challenging period, I was able to finish my primary and secondary schools and gained admission into Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, where I studied Business Administration and Management. While in the institution, I was going to Lagos to buy fairly used clothes commonly called (okrika) and come back to school to resell it in other to help myself. After my graduation, I came to Lagos to look for employment.

Fortunately for me, I met some friends of mine who were into importation and I do help them do importation documentation. But along the line I discovered that they were always having problems each time they wanted to clear  goods at the port through some freight forwarders.

Because of those difficulties of getting those consignments out of the port, I took a bold step to go to customs office at Apapa, and asked if one can clear goods on self clearing without the service of freight forwarders, and they  said yes I can do self clearing by using Form C30 and since then I started doing self clearing and  clearing for my friends.

That’s the way I started freight forwarding. I never knew what it was before. And I never came to Lagos to do freight forwarding as it was called before.

Along the line of freight forwarding business, did you embark on any training to enhance yourself?
Yes. What I did was to align myself with a very astute freight forwarding company called Pop Orjisos, which I believe God has used to get me trained the more. Though it was not a thorough learning because it lasted for 4 months but it helped me a lot.

What does it take, doing freight forwarding or business generally in our environment?
It’s difficult to do business here because there are  no legal  way of doing business. I will tell you it’s getting a little better now because people are beginning to go according to guidelines laid down for importation and business as a whole, but before now it’s difficult doing business in Nigeria, because people are not sincere and things were not actually done properly the way they should be done.

Does freight forwarding require much education before one ventures into it?
Freight forwarding these days requires a lot of training, unlike when I joined it, it was just an all comers affair. But this time around, it involves a lot of documentation  and procedures.

Most times freight forwarders do help their clients on Form M, do some door-to-door chain logistics, so if you are not educated  it will be  difficult to do these things, especially now that the federal government  has actually promulgated a law, the Act 16 of 2007 of Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFM) to set standards to professionalise, control and  regulate all the freight forwarders in Nigeria. Obviously the freight forwarding industry now is for the elite and not as perceived before.

What is your advice for new entrants?
My advise to them is that there is need to know freight forwarding to global standard, therefore one must acquire a enough training to meet the high level competition in the business.

How can you compare freight forwarding in Nigeria and other countries like Ghana etc?
If you want to compare freight forwarding in Nigeria and that of Ghana, Nigeria is still lagging behind. But through CRFFM that government  has put in place, Nigerian freight forwarders  will be going through trainings through CRFFM’s network.

It’s role in the economy…
Nigeria is an importing nation. After oil, importation is becoming the second in revenue  generation in the country.