…as CRFFN vows to strengthen association via capacity building

By Providence Ayanfeoluwa & Grace Okpaneka

The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, NAGAFF has demanded the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN to provide clear roadmap for resolving outstanding issues affecting members, including payment of practitioners operating fee, POF.

National President of NAGAFF, Tochukwu Ezisi, made the demand during a working visit of the Registrar/Chief Executive of CRFFN to NAGAFF Headquarters in Apapa.

He also demanded the council to strengthen its regulatory and enforcement framework to prevent the activities of unlicensed and unregistered freight forwarders.

Ezisi said the CRFFN should engag more regularly with NAGAF and other stakeholders to ensure that the concerns and interests of members are taken into account.

He said|: “We demand that CRFFN provides regular training and capacity building programs for our members to enhance their skills and knowledge. We demand that CRFFN recognizes NAGAF’s role as critical stakeholder in the freight forwarding industry and involves us in the decision-making processes.

“We believe that these demands are reasonable and essential to promoting a positive and productive relationship between CRFFN and NAGAF.

Your visit reinforces the importance of collaboration in our industry and a testament to vital partnership between our association and CRFFN; a partnership that is essential for the continued growth of the freight forwarding subsector of the marine and blue economy of Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Registrar/Chief Executive of CRFFN, Kingsley Igwe, said that after much consultation, the council concluded to strengthen and boost the services of freight forwarders by building capacity for better practice.

Igwe said: “Having consulted both people in the industry, outside the industry, even overseas, on how we can strengthen and make our services better, so that they are usable and can be localized, we would be bringing training to the terminal and to the freight forwarders.

“This time around, we are going to localize, such that the training I am bringing to freight forwarding should be relevant to their practice. We would not be talking about; for example, principles of economics or principles of engineering or workshop practice, we have no business with that. Rather, you should know what the international conventions that guide custom practices, custom regulations are.

“What are the ideal steps in clearing and forwarding? Introduction to freight forwarding, how do you become a freight forwarder? What do you need to do in order for you to professionalise as a freight forwarder. All of this and more, we have taken notice of them and we are bringing into the curriculum and everybody has to know that.

“Besides that, it is a mandatory regulation in the act that this exercise should be carried out by the agency, and as I speak, the Minister of Marine and blue Economy is very much interested as to how many quick forwarders do we train annually. The Presidency is also interested in capacity building”, he said.