In recent weeks, there have been intense agitation by freight forwarders against what they refer to as attempts by foreign interests to take over freight forwarding in Nigeria.
We have read positions from leading practitioners in both the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), calling attention of the government to the development.
For emphasis, a former acting National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr. Kayode Farinto, specifically called on the National Assembly to urgently initiate legislation that would reserve critical aspects of Nigeria’s freight forwarding and customs brokerage business for indigenous operators. He raised alarm that the increasing dominance of foreign firms is threatening employment, encouraging capital flight and posing serious national security risks. Farinto made this position known in a paper he presented at a breakfast session that was organized by the House of Representatives. Curiously, the session was organised to harvest practical policy recommendations aimed at advancing the nation’s economic development through legislative reforms.
Addressing lawmakers and other stakeholders, he argued that Nigeria’s logistics industry has gradually slipped into the hands of foreign interests, leaving indigenous freight forwarders increasingly marginalized, particularly in the handling of project cargoes and customs brokerage services.
Taking the same position, NAGAFF, through its Secretary General; Godfrey Emeka Nwosu, also raised concerns over what it described as the gradual displacement of indigenous freight forwarders by foreign operators, warning that Nigeria risks losing control of a critical component of its maritime sector if urgent regulatory and capacity-building measures are not implemented.
In a policy brief titled “Safeguarding the Future of Indigenous Freight Forwarders in Nigeria’s Maritime Economy”, Nwosu, said the freight forwarding subsector has reached a critical turning point.
While not indisposed to the position of the freight forwarders, we are at a loss as to the sudden realization that foreign interests have crept-in and are gradually taking some aspects of freight forwarding.
We recall that, about 11 years ago, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council envisaged that a day like this would come. So, it launched a freight forwarding indigenization campaign.
The Council’s worry was that, there is huge revenue accruable in freight forwarding, and that there was need to indigenize the practice in Nigeria, and reserve cargo clearance and delivery within Nigeria to Nigerians
This position was captured in a clear language by the Council’s Director of Commercial Shipping Services at that time; Mrs. Dabney Shall Holma, who stated unequivocally that: “we cannot rely on the multinationals to build capacity, because they will not do it, they will continue to hire and fire”.
She lamented about 11 years ago that: “Our teeming youths don’t have jobs in logistics, but you have a shipping company that has a terminal, that has trucks, that has a logistics company and also a de-consolidation centre and it’s a total logistics from end to end and that completely leaves the Nigerian populace out of that business. And that is why is so difficult for all of us to articulate how much of the trade is coming into the economic system of Nigeria”.
Sadly, for daring to announce that it was working towards barring non-Nigerians from engaging in the practice of freight forwarding in Nigeria, some licensed customs agents came hard on the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, saying that it was suffering from misplaced priorities. One of them was Mr Kayode Farinto, who was then a former Chairman of the Tin Can Island Port Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents.
That was in 2015. About 11 years after, which is in 2026, the agitation has been rekindled. However, the reason for kicking against the Shippers’ Council move is no longer relevant. What freight forwarders are interested in, is the preservation of their jobs from foreign interests.
The fact is that, between 2015 when the Nigerian Shippers Council made the move and now, multinational firms and foreign interests have grown to control a vast majority of major cargo and project logistics operations.
The damning consequence of this is that, local clearing agents and young professionals miss out on employment and wealth-building opportunities. There is manifest job losses. This is in addition to the more serious consequences of the security implication of foreign firms dominating Nigeria’s logistics business.
Unfortunately, the foreign interests have not broken any known law in Nigeria, by taking advantage of the gap in the nation’s indigenisation laws. And until the National Assembly passes the equivalent of the Local Content law and Cabotage law for logistics and freight forwarding, they may continue to have a filed day.
For those who may want to argue that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) should deal with the situation and weed out unregistered foreign interlopers, the fact is that the CRFFN Act is not a local content Act, hence it can not wade in and enforce what is not contained in its Act.
Indigenising freight forwarding in Nigeria means reserving core customs clearance, documentation, and project cargo handling, etc, exclusively for Nigerian operators to protect national security, retain capital, and create jobs.
Even in the midst of the fresh agitation by indigenous freight forwarders for indigenization, the questions should be – are the foreigners breaking any laws, why is it difficult for Nigerian freight forwarders to compete and are Nigerians equipped to compete?
The logistics chain is quite vast and segmented. Perhaps, the starting point is to identify which of the aspects in the value chain should be set aside for Nigerians, and an Executive Order is given by the President on this. Before then, the local freight forwarders will have to continue to compete unfairly with their foreign counterparts.
