A clearing agent, Mr. Augustine Ahamefule, has accused freight forwarding associations of compromise and not having the interest of their members at heart.
Speaking to Shipping Position Daily recently in Lagos, he said that the associations are busy fighting for their own personal interests at the detriment of their members and freight forwarders.
He also maintained that if the associations are living up to their billings, the rate at which agents are made to pay huge sums as levies , especially when it comes to clearance of vehicles would have been reduced.
He also advised that stakeholders should be carried along when critical issues and decisions are to be taken in the ports.
He called on the federal government to come to the aid of clearing agents and find a lasting solution to all the issues of indiscriminate charges on vehicles clearance in the ports.
“The issues here are much. I believe here in the ports there are unions and they supposed to carry stakeholders along. But here they will come and levy us unnecessarily; the extortions and the levies they impose on us are much. The recent issue is the, NPA Recovery Charge which they have levied on us through the shipping companies. But the shipping companies are saying that they do not know anything about the charge. But NPA is trying to stop the shipping companies from fighting against the charges”, he stated.
He also alleged that “freight forwarding associations are not doing their work. We are calling on the federal government to come to our rescue”, he said.
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