The Council for the Regulations of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has threatened to close down any freight forwarding association that is not duly- registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)
The chairman CRFFN Governing Council; Alhaji Abubakar Tsani, in an exclusive chat with our correspondent last week stated that no freight forwarding association is expected to operate without clearance from the CRFFN, he said freight forwarding associations are expected to get a clearance from the Council before even proceeding to the CAC for registration.
Tsani explained that section 40 of the CRFFN Act gave powers to the Council to control all the freight forwarding associations in the country.
He stated that most associations in the industry now force their way to get whatever they want from government agencies, explaining that had it been many of the associations have aligned with the Council, he said it is the council that will take up the fight on behalf of the associations.
He added that CRFFN is the mother of all associations and should be respected as such.
He further said by the time the Council’s Tribunal becomes operational, the enforcement team will function optimally and the Council will carry out its duties as expected.
According to him, “Section 40 of the Act gave power to the Council to control all the associations and had it been the associations know the value of being with the CRFFN, there are a lot of benefits, because they are directly or indirectly dealing with the Federal Government.
“Most of what they use to do is to force and get something, but when you have the government, government will see and resolve the issues amicably and honourably. So if you are with the CRFFN, it is CRFFN that will take the issues from agency to agency, government to government, and the issues will be resolved immediately. But for them to look down at their mother as though it is tantamount to nothing, it is something we will not take any longer.
“CRFFN is the mother of all associations. An association can grow and succeed if they are organized and act in accordance with the law. Nobody is above the law it’s only sometimes you overlook some certain things.
“By the time we operate Tribunal, all our enforcement will blossom and that is why we made it compulsory at the CAC that whoever that wants to register any freight forwarding activities, must come and get clearance from CRFFN; you will see that all these foreigners sometimes will come and start operating.
“It is only in the freight forwarding industry that anybody from their village will just carry his bag and come down to Apapa to say he wants to start practising.
“With what we are doing, we will clear and we will clean the industry; it will be an industry where everyone will be happy, you don’t even know who is who some are thieves, and everybody has access to the port. Which country in the world will you ever see these things, if you are going to Togo at the border, they will question you who are you, where are you going to, I see how they are checking people at Seme when I went there, but in our ports everyone has right to enter we don’t know who is who
“Things will change; going forward, this industry is where those who are not qualified to even practice will threaten to sue you; whether you are right or wrong, they will just write a petition, everybody will rush to court, whether you are eligible to go to court or not, just because you are a freight forwarder you just rush to court because the court is for everybody.
“The Act made it clear, if you are not a registered freight forwarder you don’t need to go to any court, it is very clear, when you write petitions when things are clear that you are not even supposed to write that petition, why would you waste your time”, he said.
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