• Freight Forwarding Associations Storm CRFFN
• Declare Support For Council’s Action
• Former ANLCA President Says Collections Can Not be Shared
• Freight Forwarding Associations Storm CRFFN
• Declare Support For Council’s Action
• Former ANLCA President Says Collections Can Not be Shared
The face-off between the Council for the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) and the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA) over modalities for disbursement of proceeds from the transaction fees payable on all imports into the country took a new dimension last weekend as three out of the five accredited freight forwarding associations stormed the headquarters of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to protest against the stand taken by the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA).
The governing council was about to start its meeting when placard –carrying members of the three associations stormed the Victoria Island, Lagos office of the CRFFN.
Shipping Position Daily correspondent who witnessed the protest reports that members from three out of the four associations namely; the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders (AREFFN) the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) and the National Association of Air Freight and Consolidators (NAFAC) turned out in large numbers carrying placards with different messages to specifically protest against the stand of the president of ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu.
Presenting a solidarity letter to the CRFFN Chairman, Alhaji Hakeem Olanrewaju after the protest, the National Secretary of AREFFN, Mr Okechukwu Vincent said that the association is in total support of the council, even as he added that the ANLCA president was disturbing the peace in the freight forwarding fold.
“On behalf of Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria, I address you to show our solidarity for CRFFN as far as the issue of collection of transaction fee by CRFFN as approved by the minister of transport is concerned, we are here to submit our formal letter of solidarity and support, we are not happy that the president of ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu has apparently come out to destroy this council by his actions” he said.
Also speaking for the Council of Managing Directors, Publicity Secretary of the group, Mr. Festus Ukwu begged the minister to assist the CRFFN and to make sure it survives. According to him “the ministry is strangulating the Council by starving them of funds, how can they function or train us when there is no funds”,
According to him, “Shittu himself was at the meeting where we agreed that we will be paying this money so that they will use it to train us, N1, 000 for a 20 footer container and N2, 000 for a 40 footer container, the minister should call the probe of the associations that have been collecting these money before now” Ukwu stated.
Receiving the letters of solidarity from the leadership of the three associations, chairman of the governing council of the CRFFN, Alhaji Hakeem Olanrewaju charged the freight forwarders to go about their reactions in a peaceful manner.
He assured them that their letters and request will be made known to the Minister of Transport and that the ministry shall convey a message to them soon. According to him, the collection of the transaction fee was only suspended by the minister of transport and that it was not stopped.
He assured them that the threats made by the ANLCA President, Prince Olayiwola Shittu to close down the port over disagreements with the council over the transaction fee collection is an empty threat and that no association can shut down the port.
“We are to regulate and control the practices of freight forwarding in Nigeria, if president Shittu wants to shut down the port, I don’t see reasons why he would do so because the port has nothing to do with what is on the ground, but on this case, he cannot shut down the port”.
“They have not written to us, we are just reading their actions on the pages of newspapers, we told them we will be giving them subventions to train their members and manage their associations, but since we wrote them they have not come back to us” he said.
Meanwhile, the immediate past president of ANLCA, Sir Ernest Elochukwu who is also a member of the governing board of CRFFN has distanced himself from the action of the ANLCA president; Prince Olayiwola Shittu.
Elochukwu said that the way ANLCA is going about the whole issue is wrong because, according to him, “you don’t share money that the government says you should go and collect because in the directive, there is a regulation that says that the money should be collected and how it should be collected, you must account for every dime that is collected”.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that the three associations were those that were recently accredited by the CRFFN.
Our correspondent reports that the fifth association was conspicuously absent at last Friday’s protest.
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