Dr. Obiora Madu is the Chief Executive Officer of Multimix Academy, he is also an accredited trainer with the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN). In this interaction, he talked about how CRFFN has fared in its mandate of training Nigerian freight forwarders. He also spoke on the drive of maritime agencies in manpower development. He was interviewed by Dapo Olawuni.
What is your assessment of maritime agencies commitment to manpower development?
I will take the agencies one after the other. First is the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), they have a very huge role in this and they have done so much, they partly funded the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, I know they also started a programme with about six universities and this is fantastic, when you talk about infrastructure, you will always have the hard and the soft, when you have the hard infrastructure and you don’t have the soft one which has to do with skills and capacity, then obviously you will have a lot of issues. NIMASA have done well, the only challenge they have is with the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), it is a good programme but I don’t think they have opportunity to have vessels that will enable the cadets go for the sea experience without which you cannot get certified, I think this is one area they are failing, it doesn’t make sense if someone completes the academic component of the programme and is not able to do the practical side that would combine to give him the certificate that he should get, I think they need to acquire vessel for that purpose, it is very crucial. NIMASA is also trying to build capacity of its staff within, they have done well. Shippers Council seems to be the best organized agency within the maritime industry because if you watch Shippers Council over time, there is a structured system, even management wise and in transition from one administration to the other, in terms of capacity building from within, it is also structured and you will notice that you hardly see people resigning, this means that your progression is guaranteed, there is a path that you stand to follow. The Council is also doing something for shippers who were there principal partners before their economic regulator status. I will urge the Council to still do a lot for the freight forwarding industry, I do know that we have the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) which is supposed to be almost entirely responsible for capacity building for the entire maritime industry but I think they need to step up their game.
As an accredited CRFFN trainer, what is your take on the allegations that CRFFN is politicizing its training?
I would wonder if there are training going on in the CRFFN at all, training is not everybody’s business, people have to understand what it takes, the freight forwarding industry is not an industry that is particularly interested in education, there has to be a way that you would go about it. At the inception of CRFFN it was said that there must be a minimum qualification level for people to even practice at all as freight forwarders, but how many years down the line now and nothing has been done. I can assure you that if there is nothing mandatory about the programme that CRFFN has, you will not have people willingly on their own, in spite of the fact that when CRFFN started, they did an executive diploma programme which was targeted at chief executives of freight forwarding companies, the programme did well, but the whole idea was to get them to appreciate what it is so that they can move their staff into it. While blaming the industry for not being academy- inclined, I think also that CRFFN needs to get its act right, my company is an accredited trainer, we were the fastest of all the nation’s in Africa to get accreditation from FIATA- both for diploma and advance diploma courses, but the truth is that as we are speaking, how many years down the line? How many people have gone through that training?
So, the CRFFN has not done enough to train freight forwarders?
There are two ways to it, it is either you are sponsoring people or you find a way for them to get trained, freight forwarding in Nigeria today is still an all-comers business, there is no mandatory qualification you need to have before joining the trade, this was the whole essence of CRFFN. Sometimes ago they say if you don’t have the requirement, you need to have somebody that has it otherwise the industry will collapse, the Council said it was going to sponsor a certain number of people, and two years down the line it has not happened, the CRFFN needs to change strategy because that industry is very crucial, global trade cannot happen without the freight forwarders.
What would be the permanent recipe to the problem of Nigerian seafarers?
The seafarers, particularly those who have gone to MAN, Oron, their biggest challenge has always been vessels to go for sea time, it is not rocket science, NIMASA is rich, they have enough money, if it is to acquire a vessel for this purpose, then let it be done, because the maritime industry can give Nigeria much money as the oil industry if we pay attention. On international vessels, you will discover that Philippines are the majority among the crew members, so that means, for them it is an industry, it is an export that is generating foreign exchange for them across the globe. This means that if we pay attention to our seafarers, not only shall we use them for our industry in Nigeria, but they will also become export for us and we can generate foreign exchange by making them work across the globe. I think they need help, I know a lot of them that have gone through different stages of training without sea time.
Indigenous shipowners are requesting for a national carrier status from NIMASA, should it be granted?
If you look at the last experience we have had, then we would want to say that nobody should talk about national carrier, but the truth is that in Africa, looking at the aviation industry, Ethiopian airline have acquired one of the most modern aircrafts last year, they call themselves the pride of Africa; of late Rwanda Airways , a country of 2million people have also joined, South African Air line is also there even though it is not doing too good, but because it is strategic to their tourism, the government is making sure that it is still alive, Kenya Air is also there. When we come to this national carrier thing, if it has to be done, then it has to be a PPP project with 80% private and 20% government involvement. If government has the control they we would have an issue, but if there is a government support which can come not necessarily in form of equity, government can support it in one way or the other, but a hundred per cent national carrier, funded by the government will not work. The fact remains that we need a national carrier because we import so much and we do not export so much, in the whole process including movement of our crude, we are losing out because we are not earning from freight, if you check our freight pay out annually you will be shocked, if we are able to get even 5% of that by any line that is owned nationally it is something. So the national carrier coming back is a good idea but it should be structured properly in such a way that government will have little to do with it, that way you can guarantee that it will work.
As a logistics expert, is constructing a truck park along Badagry expressway the best solution to Apapa gridlock?
Everything has a standard, before constructing a truck park there is an environmental impact assessment, if this shows that it is okay, then it won’t be problem for the environment, if it identifies some issues that needs to be addressed before the park is built. But the fact is that whether we want it or not we need that truck park, this is just one, Lagos Ibadan also needs one around Ogere, we need it all over, if you go to Apapa- Oshodi expressway now, initially it was tankers taking one part of the service lane, but now it is trailers that have overtaken the roads causing so much inconveniences. The problem is that when we are talking about the Apapa gridlock we make it look as if it is rocket science, these things are doable, we need to do environmental impact assessment, if it identifies faults then it must be attended to, it would help a lot.
Logistics and supply chain is not thriving in Nigeria right now, we have very few of you
What we are trying to do first of all is trying to help build skills, at least we can boast of over 3000 people that have gone through our programmes, we are also currently working with some blue chip companies to re-engineer their logistics. One of the challenges is the university system, our people are yet to realize that when you talk of competitiveness, it is centred around logistics and supply chain management, it is no longer part of the business, it is the business itself, if you get it right you will make progress, if you don’t get it right, you are in trouble. Another major challenge for logistics and supply chain management is information, right now there is hardly anywhere you can go and find data that will help you know about one thing or the other.
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