By Joshua Yousouph
The Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON) has raised concerns over an alleged distribution of proceeds from the Practitioners Operating Fees (POF) to accredited associations by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN). This is even as it tells the Council to, according to deregister all accredited associations that are yet to pay their subscription to the Council.
In his remarks, during a courtesy visit to the Council’s Governing Council in Lagos on Thursday, the President of the association, Otunba Frank Ogunjemite said he has observed that some CRFFN-accredited associations are being given N200,000 each as part of their benefits from the proceeds of the POF by the Council. According to him, such action may lead to anarchy in the profession.
Ogunjemite also pointed out that the CRFFN Act states that associations that have not paid their dues to the Council in the last six months are to be de-registered. He said according to his investigations, the last time the accredited associations paid their dues to the Council was about eight years ago, even as he lamented that such is a violation of the CRFFN Act.
The APFFLON helmsman however called on the Council to look into the issue and ensure other critical contributors also benefit from the POF. He also urged the management of CRFFN to consider having other associations accredited or collapse all the associations under one umbrella.
“What is the difference between an accredited association and non-accredited association”, he asked. According to investigations before me, the last time each association paid money to the council was about eight years ago. As I speak to you, there is no accredited association by CRFFN in this country. This is because the Act states that you must pay your subscription within six months and these people have not paid for eight years. Is that not a violation of the Act? We want the Council’s Board to look into this and have a reconciliation of account for this, if they actually paid. Some associations are owing their dues which is a violation of the Act and according to the provisions of the Law they must be deregistered.
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On his part, the Chairman, Media and Publicity committee of the CRFFN Governing Council, Hon. Muftahu Ya’u noted that the Council is only responsible to accredited individuals, corporate bodies or associations. He however assured APPFLON that the Council will continue to have interactions with them to ensure all their grievances are resolved.
Muftahu stressed that according to the provision of the CRFFN, no freight forwarder is empowered by law to drag a fellow freight forwarder to court or report to the police concerning any issue of conflict, but they should rather utilise the dispute reconciliatory mechanisms already set up by the Governing Council whenever freight forwarders have issues or disputes. He also warned that erring freight forwarders who refuse to abide by these rules will be sanctioned or suspended.
“Any freight forwarder either corporate or association is not empowered by law to drag a fellow freight forwarder to court or even report to the Police on any matter that brings conflict between both parties. The council is just putting in place most of the reconciliation mechanisms.
There are provisions in the Act that anyone who takes any matter to court without passing through all the processes enshrined in the Act can possibly get sanctioned or suspended. There will be an interface where the Council will look into the complaints of APFFLON and where there are reasonable grounds, the Council will grant them what they want” Muftahu concluded.
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