APFFLON Queries CRFFN Over FIATA Non Membership

The Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON) has queried the Council for the Regulations of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) why the country has failed to register and be accredited with International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA).

FIATA, a non-governmental organisation, represents today an industry covering approximately 40,000 forwarding and logistics firms, also known as the “Architects of Transport”, employing around 8 – 10 million people in 150 countries and Nigeria is not recognized as member.

AFFLON also called for stakeholders assessment and evaluation of the council’s performance since inception.

 

 

President of the association ,Frank Ogunojemite in a chat with newsmen on Wednesday , noted that the council has not performed as expected by practitioners.

Ogunojemite lamented that council’s failure to registered with the international body of practitioners send wrong signal to global best practices, thus called on the governing council to give reasons behind the delay for not aligning with the FIATA ,which according to him; the profession goes beyond local participation.

While harping on International best practices, APFFLON boss said freight forwarding business cut across the shores of the nation’s seaports,land borders and airports but added that the group was established to address issues bothering on the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTFTA).

He stressed that : “CRFFN needs to be evaluated by stakeholders. There must be checks and balances in all that they do and as am talking to now, Nigeria is not with FIATA.

“If Nigeria is not with FIATA then what is the council doing since inception.”

Asked what the implications tend to portend for freight forwarding practitioners in Nigeria, the APFFLON boss reiterated that the nation’s practitioners have no stake globally due to its non partisanship of the international body.

He explained that Nigeria cannot participate on virtual and webinar hosted by FIATA and would be difficult for the local operators to take part in global conferences put together by the world body of practitioners.

“I am so sad that we are yet to be a member of FIATA and we continuously fly that flag here in Nigeria.

On the need for training of practitioners, the President maintained that manpower development formed a cardinal point of the council’s mandates but added that no group or individuals have benefitted in anyway from CRFFN capacity building project.