Simeon Nwonu is the Deputy National President of Nigerian Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF). In this interview with Oluyinka Onigbinde, he speaks on the recent forex ban on food items, importance of human capacity development and other sundry issues.
“Some people call themselves clearing agents, what is clearing agent?”
What’s your reaction to the recent ban on forex for importation of some food items?
This ban has been there since 2016, the only thing that is new is that the CBN governor told us they are adding some list of food items that can be produced in Nigeria to the already existing list as a way to conserve forex. Outside that, the 43 items majority of which are food items are already banned, so it’s not a new thing, but it seems when our President was speaking in Kaduna, and he mentioned the issue of food items people thought its anew thing, but it’s not, it has been there since 2016, the only thing we are now resisting is that the governor of CBN said they intend to add more food items to the list.
Don’t you think this may lead to scarcity of food in the country?
Yes, because every action has a reaction, but what we are seeing in the country is a situation where people at the top don’t know what is happening, I am sure the CBN Governor doesn’t go to the market to buy anything, possibly his children and wife are not in Nigeria, and even the food they eat government bears the cost.
And who is producing all the money? It is you and I, they don’t know that the people are suffering; they eat whatever they want to eat, and drink whatever they want to drink, when some people are starving outside there.
So the issue of putting more food items on the list cannot be in the good interest of Nigeria, and they keep telling us the reasons are because they want to conserve forex, in other to develop the nation, in other to bring social amenities and all that, but all these things are lies; these people are not being faithful and sincere, that is the truth.
So what do you think will be the outcome of this?
The outcome is that we shall end up having great food scarcity in the country and what will it lead to? It will lead to starvation, hunger, diseases, sickness and death of many people and the truth is that by the time they implement this, and after a short while if they now want to reverse this, a lot of damaged must have been done. So when I look at the governor of CBN talking about enhancing the capacity in the country by hoarding forex, to me it doesn’t make sense.
Food is very vital to the existence of man, so they need to be careful; the government can toy with many things, but not with what we eat, it was reported sometime in Bangladesh that parents were killing their children to eat, let us not get to that level and I wish the governor of CBN will advise the government accordingly. But the truth also remains that the so called advisers don’t tell the government, (I mean the President who appointed them) the truth, because they want to retain their positions, they will rather tell the President what he will like to hear than to tell him the plain truth.
Do you think this might also affect our relationship with other countries, even now that we just signed the AfCFTA?
You see, like I told you that sometimes we engage in policy somersaulting and that is another problem we have in this country, the so-called developed countries carry out proper calculation, the so called statistical inventory on policy they want to go into, but here we are always taking everything in a jiffy, sometimes I don’t think we understand the implications of this policies, that AfCFTA that you mentioned now; if it begins to work I am telling you many factories will close down in Nigeria, even most of the foreign investors in the country will vacate and another side of it is that Nigeria will be become a dumping ground for the West Africa sub region. So there is no way we can now begin to talk about ban, and now let me tell you again in banning some of these food items, no matter the pressure the government may put at the entry points of the country, smuggling will still be on the increase, because the government cannot effectively control smuggling, but I pray that the government will have a rethink on some of these policies that will not favour any of us at the end of the day.
So you think this ban will also lead to high smuggling activities in the country?
Of course, people must eat, and remember we are Nigerians even those ones that the government have put there to curtail smuggling, will even be the one to show smugglers the unapproved route to take, so that is what will happen if our government is not careful.
You are probably saying this because it will affect your business as a freight forwarder?
Of course not, but it is obvious that it will affect us, take for instance the moment we begin to resist imports, it means that the businesses will be coming down and many freight forwarders won’t have any job to do and when you look at some of the policies the government have put in place this has even made many of the importers to be frustrated out of the system and when they continue to go out, it will boomerang on the freight forwarders because it is only when you have a cargo that you will say you want to work, so if you don’t have any cargo which work will you say you are going to do at the port. So normally it will affect the freight forwarding business, but beyond that it will affect us as a country.
What’s the update on the NAGAFF training school, when are you kick-starting?
Just before you came, I have received calls from different people that they need our forms and some have picked the form already and many are still coming, and you see our concern is to ensure that the practitioners are educated in the area of their operations, because when you are educated in the area of your operations, you will be in good position to defend what you are doing. Most of the people you see out there calling themselves agents don’t know much about the operations, so there is need for professionalism so that they can really know the in-depth of what they are doing, and that is why we have been hammering on education, it doesn’t matter the course you have studied in the Polytechnic or University, our concern is for you to be properly tutored in the maritime freight forwarding profession.
For instance, some people call themselves clearing agents, what is clearing agent? And they go about carrying document they don’t know nothing about, if you ask some what is CIF, they don’t know, so it’s an aberration, so this time we are talking about professionalism and our focus is on professionalism and that is why NAGAFF is interested in training and retraining of our members, and not just our members but all practitioners in the industry. When you are properly trained, you can stand and defend what you are doing and also know your rights as a freight forwarder when there is a problem. And we are happy that people are already turning up.
Will the school be affiliated to any of the universities in the country?
As we are talking right now, we are developing an international curriculum, we are already partnering with NBTE in charge of technical courses in the country and we are also working with the NUC and the Federal Ministry of Education, so we are working, as I am talking to you now we already have on board four professors that will be guiding us and sometime come and give elective course, one is at Federal University Owerri, two at University of Lagos and one is based in Canada and he has accepted to be taking us online courses.
Are you partnering CRFFN on the training school?
CRFFN originally was to train some people on scholarship on annual basis, but because of paucity of funds they are not doing it, which means of cause they have the right to train some of us, so if that one comes all well and good, and infact this is one of the things they are meant to do, CRFFN is meant to be financing such institutions like NAGAFF Academy, so we are working with all those avenues.
When is the school taking off?
We are taking our time you know starting anything good needs proper planning, but by the special grace of God we are taking off first week of September.
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