A chieftain of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Mr .Olufemi Olabanji has urged the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to focus on its core mandate of building capacity for practitioners instead of depending heavily on the much talked about Practitioners Operating Fees (POF) collection.
Olabanji, a former chairman of Tin Can 2 chapter of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) in a chat with newsmen on Monday, maintained that the Council’s governing board members were gradually drifting from the purpose establishing CRFFN; even as he called on the registrar to ensure adequate training of practitioners.
Olabanji noted that since the appointment of the Registrar of CRFFN, the Council is yet to gather stakeholders on how best to commence training and retraining of freight forwarders and licensed customs agents.
The licensed customs agent who also doubles as the Managing Director, FEMAT Nigeria Limited, expressed worries over the council’s poor performance in it’s regulatory roles, noting that the foundation of which the current board members have started was faulty.
He also harped on the need for the council to compensate the founder ,National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) ,Dr. Boniface Aniebonam ,towards ensuring a conducive learning environment and accommodation for lectures to thrive.
Olabanji stressed that value must be added to show the level of transformation that have occurred in the freight forwarding sub sector.
While harping on the need for practitioners to obtain requisite knowledge in freight forwarding education, the ANLCA chieftain noted that, “The council can now perform better but I want them to remember that training is key.
“We should ensure that training is consistent because the future is bright for we the operators.
“I benefitted from the trainings offered by Redeemers University courtesy CRFFN and this time around, I want the board members to ensure that the training campaign and sensitisation of practitioners is taken as a priority.
“CRFFN should look inward to promote training of the practitioners and that should be its priority for now before talking about POF. When we are talking about POF collection and this purpose of establish the council is faulty then there is a problem”.
He called on the government to have a rethink about POF collection as it would add to the cost of clearing goods from the nations seaports.
The ANLCA chieftain further called on the council to ensure that the arbitrary charges imposed on Nigerian shippers must be address adding that “these are some of the key issues affecting the practitioners”.
