The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has appealed to federal lawmakers to evaluate the performance of the Council for the Regulations of Freight Forwarders in Nigeria (CRFFN) since in inception .
Founder of NAGAFF ,Dr. Boniface Aniebonam who made the plea during the 2nd edition of Freight Forwarders Day celebration held in Lagos on Monday, lamented that evil forces have made the council to suffer setbacks since inception, but urged the upper and lower chambers of the various committees on CRFFN to query the anomalies befalling the council through oversight functions .
The founder stressed the need for the lawmakers to intervene in finding lasting solutions to the numerous problems affecting the council’s growth.
He affirmed that the council, if properly harnessed can generate over 100,000 job opportunities within the maritime sub sector for the teeming Nigerian youths and must not be toiled with .
Aniebonam also called on the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Ameachi to understand that freight forwarding practice is the catalyst to the nation’s economic growth and must be seen as a game charger ,thus CRFFN must not be seen to be docile rather active .
The founder said: “I wish to call the National Assembly committees in charge of CRFFN to try and evaluate the council and see what is the problem because something is wrong somewhere that we cannot understand.
“We want the lawmakers to take a second look at the council’s performance over the years because it is expected by now that the council should have some level of direction and focus more on its mandates.
“Up till date, members of the council cannot tell us if they are indeed board members of CRFFN and we should understand that the situation is sending a wrong signal .
He also agitated for the council to transmute from the transport ministry to that of Trade and Investment in order for it to work effectively.
“Since 2007 till now the council has not been able to find its foot under the transport ministry; from one Minister to the other and at the end of the day we have found out that the council has not made any progress since the beginning of its existence.
” And we are still battling in the appeal court to establish the fact that CRFFN is not an agency of the government.
Aniebonam who is the Chairman of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPC) noted that 21 years of association’s existence has proven beyond doubts that there is hope for the freight forwarding practitioners.
