Freight forwarders practicing at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos are currently facing hard times as a result of the planned renovation of Nigerian airports by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) which has affected the offices and secretariats of the freight forwarders.
It was learnt that FAAN is coming up with an arrangement that is directed by the Minister of Aviation; Mrs. Stella Odua that Nigeria airports should be given a face-lift.
Freight forwarders practicing at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos are currently facing hard times as a result of the planned renovation of Nigerian airports by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) which has affected the offices and secretariats of the freight forwarders.
It was learnt that FAAN is coming up with an arrangement that is directed by the Minister of Aviation; Mrs. Stella Odua that Nigeria airports should be given a face-lift.
Shipping Position Daily has also confirmed that the secretariat of the two major freight forwarding associations in Nigeria namely; the Association of Nigeria Licensed Custom Agents (ANLCA) and National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) have been affected by the renovation.
But speaking with our correspondent in Lagos yesterday, Secretary of the airport chapter of ANLCA, Mr. Davies-Ben Chukwuneye, lamented that the secretariat of the association has been demolished and the freight forwarders have been sent packing from the vicinity.
He also confirmed that as a temporary respite, FAAN has asked the freight forwarders to pitch their tent with the bus drivers at the garage around the popular ‘Hadji Camp’ bus park pending when the renovation of the airport will be completed.
According to Davies-Ben, the present situation at the airport is traumatic because licensed customs agents at the airport carry huge amount of money around daily and that the new location is not good enough.
"Unfortunately, where they relocated us is outside the Hadji terminal and we are not happy with the place, considering the fact that our business has to do with carrying huge sums of money and the security is not there", he lamented.
He pointed out that the association had gone back to FAAN and demanded that they do something about the place, but added that FAAN is still, "insisting that we must go to that place just by Hadji camp bus park, so we are going to share the place with motor park associations" he lamented.
Continuing, Davies-Ben explained that, "we as an association are demanding for a documentation that will at least give us the right to go there, so that tomorrow nobody will just come and chase us out, with the paper we can go into litigation when necessary.
"We have agreed to go to wherever they asked us to go, but there must be a documentary evidence of our movement" he demanded.
Confirming the development to our correspondent, Public Affairs Manager of FAAN, Mr. Akin Olukunle explained that the secretariat of the associations within the NAHCO complex is not befitting for them and that management is erecting structures which all the operators will benefit from in the long run.
Olukunle appealed to the operators to make do with the place they have been provided, pending the completion of the project.
"You will see that where they were using was not an ideal place for their kind of business, and for security reasons we want to give them a befitting place, in the meantime they just have to manage" he said.
Olukunle explained that FAAN management is currently carrying out the remodeling of 11 airports in Nigeria and that the MMIA is part of it.
He told our correspondent that the contractor in charge of the construction had few weeks ago pulled down unwanted structures within the NAHCO complex and that any moment from now it will mobilise to the site.
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