• Says “We are freight forwarders, not clearing agents”
For daring to call them ‘clearing agents’ instead of their new nomenclature of ‘freight forwarders’, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has taken on the chairman of Shipping Association of Nigeria (SAN ); Mr Val Usifoh.
• Says “We are freight forwarders, not clearing agents”
For daring to call them ‘clearing agents’ instead of their new nomenclature of ‘freight forwarders’, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has taken on the chairman of Shipping Association of Nigeria (SAN ); Mr Val Usifoh.
In a one-page strongly worded statement made available to Shipping Position Daily yesterday, NAGAFF made reference to the comment that was attributed to the SAN chairman when he led a delegation of his association on a courtesy visit to the acting executive secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Mr Hassan Bello.
According to the association, Mr Usifoh is courting trouble by referring to freight forwarders as mere clearing agents and by insinuating that most of the fraudulent acts in the ports are attributable to licensed customs agents.
The SAN chairman had during his association’s visit to the Shippers Council’s boss, deried the state of things at the ports, he had specifically lamented that freight forwarders are currently lagging behind in the super highway of information technology driven cargo delivery.
He had also said that there are too many people in the freight forwarding system and that some of them are fraudulent and that they give shippers a lot of trouble.
"They call themselves freight forwarders now, but they are clearing agents, many of them go to cyber cafes and even in these cyber cafes, we know the customs have problems and recently the CGC arrested some people involved in cyber crimes", the SAN chairman had told his host.
Usifoh had also appealed to the Shippers’ Council to resolve the ongoing crisis currently rocking the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) in order to ensure regulation of the freight forwarding sector.
"This council worked so hard to give birth to the CRFFN, that baby is currently suffering serious internal hemorrhage, I now appeal that you should not allow that baby to die, if there is any way you can bring the warring parties together, because there is need for regulation and standardisation" he had said.
But taking a swipe at Mr Usifoh, NAGAFF in the statement signed by its chairman, Board of Trustees, Mr Chidiebere Enelamah, warned Usifoh against what it called unguarded statement.
“It is our considered opinion that Mr Val Usifoh should be told that those who live in glass house should not throw stones”, the statement lashed out and stressed that the top industry player is un informed in his comment.
“To educate him, he should know that internationally freight forwarders are recognised and celebrated professionals, what he calls clearing agents may be Customs brokers”, the statememt pointed out.
On the crisis in the CRFFN, NAGAFF told Mr Usifoh, that contrary to his appeal, he is old enough in the industry to initiate moves to reconcile the various forces that are at loggerheads in the Council
Discussion about this post