Indication has emerged that the recent declaration by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to categorise freight forwarding associations as well as practitioners may not go down well with certain interests.
One of them is the National President of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) Dr. Frank Ukor, who has urged the Council to dump the idea.
Indication has emerged that the recent declaration by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to categorise freight forwarding associations as well as practitioners may not go down well with certain interests.
One of them is the National President of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) Dr. Frank Ukor, who has urged the Council to dump the idea.
Registrar of the CRFFN, Sir Mike Jukwe had announced recently that the Council is ready to enforce the categorization of freight forwarders into seven different groups and that all freight forwarders must belong to a category.
According to the new categorization, everyone operating a customs license must be registered under ANLCA.
Reacting to this in a chat with ShippingPosition Daily, Dr. Ukor frowned at the idea, giving an indication that the exercise may not see the light of the day.
He urged the Council to dump the categorization idea by allowing the five existing associations operate as they are currently, and that categorization should be applicable to new associations springing up.
"You can't force me to belong to a camp even if you are categorizing, if I don't like to belong to ANLCA, you cannot force me to belong to ANLCA, I have freedom of association, I will look for other associations and join, it is not compulsory to be a broker before I can join association"
"The existing associations should be allowed to be, and the new ones coming in should be affected by the categorization" Dr. Ukor stated
Speaking on the collection of the practitioners’fee by the CRFFN, the AREFFN boss told our correspondent that the five registered associations had already held a meeting on the mode of collecting the funds.
Dr. Ukor said that all five associations have reached an agreement that the money should be collected by the CRFFN through an agent.
The money will be included in the debit note that will be paid by each freight forwarder at the point of carrying their cargo from the port.
"The CRFFN gave us 35%, and we are now discussing the best way to collect the money, we on our own cannot collect, we would collect from the CRFFN, they will do all the collection and then give each association"
"It is okay by us, they are a government agency and the minister gives instructions to them and they carry it out"
"All they need to do is to include the money in the debit notes, their consultants will go in to collect the money and at the end of each week or month the Council will disburse the funds accordingly"
Dr. Ukor also told our correspondent that the registered associations will sign a MoU with the CRFFN after the sharing formula for the 35% collection must have been ironed out.
However, it would be recalled that while speaking in Lagos recently, Registrar of CRFFN, Sir Mike Jukwe had insisted that the CRFFN Act has mandated it to determine who a freight forwarder is, saying that the council is ready to release seven registers of freight forwarders that must be entered by every practitioner.
The categories are; Brokerage Services, Logistics and Consolidation, Haulage Services, Finance and Insurance Services, Banks, Consultancy and Training Services, Supply Channel Management, Regulatory and Allied Services.
Jukwe had said, "the Act gave us the mandate to determine who a freight forwarder is, of recent, with the collaboration of all the association's, in particular ANLCA, we have defined and categorized freight forwarding in Nigeria as it is obtainable in all the world into seven chategorised, one of which is brokerage services"
"Very soon, we are going to come out with seven registers of freight forwarding so that you will know where you belong, we must specialize, we should not be jack of all trades and mastering none" Jukwe said.
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