The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, (CRFFN) has assured that payment and collection of the controversial Practitioners Operations Fee (POF) will commence in 2020.
The assurance was given last week by the Registrar of the Council; Barrister Samuel Nwakohu made this known while fielding questions from journalists at the end of a two-day workshop organized by the Council in Lagos last week.
Giving an insight into why collection is delayed, the CRFFN boss disclosed that arrangements for the commencement of collection were in top gear, and that the Council is working in collaboration with relevant agencies of the Government.
According t him, integration of payment modules with the Nigerian Ports Authourity has been concluded, while that of Customs was in progress. He has the same applies to the aviation sector.
He added that the CRFFN was also carrying the Ministry of Finance along. “We have written to the Ministry of Finance to ask that payment of POF becomes a pre-condition for cargo exit from the ports”, he stated
The CRFFN Registrar however frowned at the proliferation of freight forwarding associations. He attributed the development to lack of professionalism in the freight forwarding.
Nwakohu said the CRFFN will try and see how it can collapse the different associations into one.
According to him "we will not have proliferation of associations, if they were professionals, and I believe this is one of those things the council will look at, and see how we can resolve this”.
"We need to tackle it from the root and I feel deeply concerned about the numbers of associations we have in the industry.
Explaining further, he said: “I receive different heads of associations every day, telling me they are the President of so and so association.
“If it possible, I will like a situation where we can collapse all the associations into one body and they can now have chapters over the 36 states of the country, just like othe professional bodies do”.
He explained that the CRFFN, as the regulatory body is there to guide the associations, adding that the council has the interest of freight forwarders at heart.
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