Chief Ifeanyi Anakweze is factional President of the National Council of Managing Directors and Licensed Customs Agents. In this interview with Joshua Yousouph, he dwells on the challenges facing the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria. He also addresses the issue of factions in his association.
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We are almost at the end of the third quarter of 2024. How can you assess the maritime industry so far?
In assessing the maritime industry, we have to start from the country as a whole, because due to the way things are going and the high rate of dollar to naira and all of that, it has affected importation which is the area of our concern. Importation dropped drastically in the sense that a vessel cannot even carry up to 200 or 300 containers as it used to carry about 4,000 containers before now. So, it has really affected the jobs. For instance, in some Customs commands like PTML, Tin Can Island port and the mother port itself which is the Apapa port, are not always as busy as they used to be. That means the job looks so slow. It is so disheartening.
How can you say the maritime industry has fared under the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy so far?
The maritime industry has been under the Ministry of Transportation before it was moved to the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. Even the Customs itself, they are under the Ministry of Finance. From when we started this job in the early ‘90s, we know that the Customs reports to the Ministry of Finance and things were working through inter-agency and ministries’ collaboration. But these days, I don’t even know how to qualify it or what to say about that. I don’t know how to relate the ministries and agencies together. Things have really gone out of hand. Things are not properly working the way they should be and the CRFFN as a body is not helping matters, because they are the regulatory body under the government through the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. Then when they came on board, there were some things they told us about that they should be doing. They called us together and we were being regulated by them; and there are about five accredited associations under CRFFN. But ever since that time till now, things are not going the way they should be. Because otherwise, we expected CRFFN to take charge and take actions on some certain issues. This is supposed to be in between the clearing agents, Customs and the Ministries.
One major crisis CRFFN had recently was the fact that they have not paid staff salaries. Why do you think it’s difficult for CRFFN to pay the salaries of their staff despite the collection of POF?
I don’t know why they are yet to pay salary. Should I call it an internal problem? I think it is, because when POF came on board, we assumed that CRFFN should be richer now. We even expected that there should be boxing now in terms of funds and all that. But to my surprise, the staff are complaining that they are not being paid. So, I was wondering what happened. They are the people generating this money. This money goes through them. We the agents, we pay POF. As a matter of fact, the POF is going on. There is no existing terminal you go to now and you don’t pay your POF before writing your Terminal Delivery Order. It is already regulated and computerized into the system. So, I wonder why they are crying of money and no funds to pay staff and all that, I am surprised. I don’t know. This is a question we should ask them. It’s only them that can explain.
There are reports that some clearing agents still boycott the payment of POF, particularly the Lucky Amiwero faction of your association. What is your take on that?
There is no way anybody cannot pay his POF now especially when you go to any of the Commands like Apapa port, Tin-can, even Sifax. Just recently, I was in Sifax last week. I did a job there. So, it was already configured in the system, every job must be paid. Whether you are in this faction or you are not in this faction. I don’t know if you understand me. So, it is left for you to indicate your association stating whether it is National Council, NAGAFF, ANCLA or others during the time of payment. So, nobody escapes it. It’s already in the system. If you don’t pay it, there will be no TDO for you. Your TDO will not be printed out.
One of the grouses of freight forwarders have always been that they pay the POF, but they don’t get back commission as promised by CRFFN. What’s your take on this?
Yes, as for the dividends from POF, the National Council as a body has not gotten any dime. You see, there’s a problem with CRFFN. When the CRFFN governing council came on board in 2012 if I’m not mistaken, we had about four existing associations, which everybody carried along. They made it automatic that every President must be a member of the board of CRFFN. But lately they came up with politics. Politics in the sense that it was governed by money bags. Just like the recent election they did two years ago or thereabouts, at the army barracks in Apapa. If you were there, I think you saw what happened there. People were carrying money and all of that. This is not what we agreed on. We agreed that in every association, there should be a representative. Be it the president, be it whoever, let there be a representative from every association. But when that politics issue came up, it wasn’t like that. They didn’t do it that way. That is why by the time you don’t follow the regulations or you don’t follow due process, the system will collapse. Just like what is happening now; at the end of the day, that same board was dissolved. There is nothing like the Governing Council now in CRFFN. So, the National Council has not received any dime from CRFFN.
What is CRFFN saying about it?
They keep on telling us that we did not indicate the association when making the POF payments which shouldn’t be so. An agent is an agent. You know what will pass through, it is just like if you are chasing your container. For example, let me use the last consignment I cleared at Sifax. As at the time you are done with Customs, due to a system problem, they will tell you the system is down. By the time the system comes up, the Deputy Comptroller or Assistant Controller there will try to clear his tables based on those that have written reports for examination and all of that. So, by the time you must have finished doing CIU and all that, it’s already closing time for the terminal operator. They cannot do anything. But meanwhile, you have already paid for this CRFFN POF. They have a different amount for different sizes of containers – either 20-footer or 40-footer. You will pay through the system. Because you are already running late and you are trying to meet up with the time, they might not even remember to indicate your association. What you will be after, at that point in time is to make sure that money has paid into CRFFN coffers. So that is the problem we are having. So, CRFFN shouldn’t say you must indicate your association during the time of this payment. This is because most times, it’s the company that pays this money.
One of the major issues with CRFFN as you said earlier is the dissolution of the governing council. Members are claiming they were elected and they have not served -out their tenure. What is your take on that?
What they are actually crying for is the money they threw up, the money they spent. They have not recovered the money they spent. So, most of them, in fact this is what majority of them are crying for. You cannot eat your cake and have it back. That is very natural. So that is the issue with CRFFN and before CRFFN will take-off again, we have to sit down and go back to the drawing table to find a way it will benefit every association.
What do you think can be done concerning the dissolved governing council of CRFFN?
I’m not the government. This is the government order so far so good by dissolving the board. So, it depends on when probably the Ministry remembers the board again. Then they will know what to do. But before that time, we have to sit down, just like I said earlier, that every accredited association should sit down and everybody will make suggestions. This is because I believe there was a backyard meeting. Most of us were not carried along. So that was why they played the role they played there.
Stakeholders feel that the National Council has two factions. While some claim not to be under CRFFN, the other claims to be under CRFFN. What’s your take as regards to these?
I believe the National Council is still the National Council; whether you like it or not. It’s just an issue of interest, because somebody said he wants to be a life president in the association. It’s not possible and it doesn’t work that way. Just check for NAGAFF for instance, Dr. Aniebonam the founder of NAGAFF was the pioneer President, but a time came when he shifted, he stood back and there were so many presidents after him, if not up to four or five, after he stepped aside. So that is how associations should be. I believe the National Council is still one.
What about the issue of being under CRFFN and not under CRFFN?
I heard that they are even currently in court against CRFFN. If they wish to be in court, we are not part of it, because we believe that we must keep the National Council going. We look at CRFFN as a government body, so we decided to key in, in order to maintain peace and follow up with the trends in the ports.
