To ensure that freight forwarders speak with one voice, the National Association of Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has called for the merger of existing freight forwarding associations into two.
In a separate interview with Shipping Position Daily, both the President of NAGAFF; Mr. Increase Uche and the association’s deputy president of the association, Mr.Emmanuel Agubanze argued that multiplicity of freight forwarding associations is causing confusion in the sector.
The NAGAFF President said that among the ones that in existence, it’s only NAGAFF that is qualified to be called a freight forwarding association.
"Creation of more associations is not going to help the sector in anyway. Even among the ones that are in existence, for some of us that are freight forwarding experts, the only association there is NAGAFF; others are sub-associations. Right now, there is no association that provides all the freight forwarding aspects, except NAGAFF what most of them do is factional freight forwarding" , he stressed.
He also said that in other to diversify the sector, there is need to revive the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).
"What we have now is cluster and that is why we are talking about the CRFFN because it will help in diversifying the sector. We need to have an umbrella body for freight forwarders and it is only NAGAFF that can provide that, because they have all it takes. For us to have the industry fully sanitized, there is no need for the creation of more association. Every other association is supposed to come under NAGAFF", he concluded.
In the same vein, the deputy president of the association, Mr.Emmanuel Agubanze, said that creation of more associations will result into duplication of associations which will make the sector speak with different voices for their own selfish interest.
"At the end of the day, when you keep forming associations, you keep duplicating associations it will make the sector speak in different voices. We are even looking at a situation where we will have only two associations that will speak with one voice and the government will hear. The essence of association is to enhance the welfare of the people. When you begin to divide and form many associations you can no longer speak with one voice and the purpose is defeated", he concluded.
Also, speaking on the issue of proliferation of associations, a member of NAGAFF; Mr. Bimbo Olayokun said that creation of more associations will bring confusion into the sector.
"Creating more associations is not healthy for the industry it will cause confusion, because they will be talking from different perspectives for their own selfish interest. We should be talking of how to merge the associations into two, freight forwarders and customs licensed agents. Having many associations will cause more problems", he said.
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