ANLCA President; Shittu Says CRFFN Bill Was Hijacked From ANLCA

The National President, Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has said that the Bill that led to the establishment of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) was originally the brainchild of ANLCA.
He stated this at the association’s secretariat recently when he hosted the General Manager Western Ports of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); Chief Michael Ajayi.
According to Shittu, ANLCA had forwarded a Bill under the title “Council for the Regulation of Clearing and Forwarding Agency‎” to the National Assembly shortly before it was hijacked by some people whom he failed to mention and turned it into the CRFFN Bill.
He said that ANLCA is not supposed to be regulated by the CRFFN because it is registered with the Nigeria Customs Service already. He also added that the international parent body of his association is International Federation of Customs Brokers Association (IFCBA) and not FIATA.
“We had prepared a Bill with the National Assembly to give us a Council for the Regulation of Clearing and Forwarding Agency‎, that Bill was presented to them at the House of Representatives, I was based in Port Harcourt then, people were smarter than us because our leaders then were sleeping, they didn’t know what could happen tomorrow, they hijacked the Bill and re-christened it Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria and this gave birth to CRFFN in 2007”
“In looking for members to be regulated, they (CRFFN) included‎ customs agents whose international representatives is IFCBA and other ancillary services under FIATA, they put everybody together and that is why we found the ostrich, turkey and pidgin together in one cage, this is why there is no control” he said.
“The bad name given to agents today is as a result of people working in the common user areas unchecked by the connivance of NPA”
“We used to be known as clearing and forwarding agents and it is a profession we are proud of and that is why our association has been in existence since 1954 when many of us were not born. Clearing and forwarding simply means you clear import goods and your forward export goods, those days Nigeria used to do more export than import, now the tide has turned”
“The Federation of International Transport Association (FIATA) idea emerged and became a phenomenon, people wanted to associate with FIATA but they didn’t want to know‎ what FIATA stood for, FIATA stood for forwarding logistics and goods within nations, and the biggest player in FIATA board today are DHL and FedEx, because they move cargoes and packages and goods needed urgently”