The founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has said that 99.9% of the people in the freight forwarding business do not have knowledge.
Aniebonam said this on Monday at the inauguration of the NAGAFF Academy governing council members at the NAGAFF headquarters in Apapa, Lagos.
Explaining further he said aside the efforts being made by the association in terms if educating freight forwarders, there is no formal education for one to be in freight forwarding business in Nigeria.
Aniebonam however fingered ignorance as the reason people like him are mostly misunderstood to be on the side of customs.
"99.9% of people of people in freight forwarding business don't have knowledge. And that is why, when people like us start talking some of them might even claim that we are supporting customs and all that"
"And that is why when some of us are talking they won't understand what we are taking about. But we are are talking about the rules of the game, what the law says"
Aniebonam reiterated that a lot of people are informally involved in the profession.
"There is no formal education for you to be in freight forwarding business except the effort that is being made by NAGAFF. For instance I worked with Customs, so I have that knowledge but others don't have the opportunity. So they are informally involved in the business"
He also blamed ignorance and lack of knowledge as the reason there is high level of non-compliance in the profession saying that most of them don't even know that what they are doing is wrong.
"Of course many of them do not even know that what they are doing is wrong or against the law. Some of them are trained by somebody who didn't even understand the law now they see it as a way of life"
According to him, the academy will be involved in training of professional freight forwarders to be able to engage government agencies when the need arises.
"Of course we will be specifically involved in training. the raw materials are there, the young freight forwarders are there over thousands of them but they need that education"
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He charged the newly inaugurated governing council member of the academy to think more of delivering on their mandate instead of talking about money.
Meanwhile in his speech, the chairman of the governing council of the academy, Mr. Simeon Nwonu, said that the main essence of the academy is to enthrone professionalism.
"Globally, there is nothing called clearing agents, what we have is professional freight forwarders all over the world. And that is why the academy was set up for training and retraining of members of NAGAFF and even non members"
"I know people from other associations who attended school here for certification that is why this academy is here in other to achieve excellence", he said.
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