CRFFN: A NEW BEGINNING?
We had predicted in our first edition for this year that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) will be an interesting watch in 2010. The Council made our watch list of six corporate and individual players in the Nigerian maritime industry. Please, see page 11 of Volume 3, 9th edition.
We had observed that the declaration of intention on the part of the Council to establish a freight forwarding academy, allegations of incompetence, lack of direction and sundry other misgivings from some sections of freight forwarders were shaking the Council and threatening its success.
Some freight forwarders had threatened legal action against the Tony Nwabunike-led leadership for going out of its mandate as a regulatory agency and expressing interest to establish an academy.
We had also observed that there were allegations that the zonal offices which it claimed to have established in Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt could not be traced, so also is its leadership been accused of deliberate falsehood when it promised that on-line registration would commence in December, 2009.
But, our fears were doused last week, when the Council held it’s first ever interactive session with the leadership of freight forwarding associations and training institutions. For the first time since the almost two-year old CRFFN was inaugurated, members of all association sat under one roof, discussed freely and asked forward-looking questions.
The CRFFN started out as an all-ANLCA Council, because, virtually all the elected and selected members of the Council are ANLCA. But, gradually, the dominance has started giving way for a more inclusive administration.
Shortly, after its inauguration and the consequent emergence of an ANLCA-dominated Council, we had raised alarm that other groups and individuals who contributed time and resources were excluded. Specifically, we had single out the Dr Boniface Aniebonam-led National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), the Dr Zebulon Ikokide –led Institute of Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (IFFN) and the Mr Lucky Amiwero-led National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents as worthy of being accommodated in the Council. Apart from Mr Amiwero, both Dr Aniebonam and Dr Ikokide, (accompanied by key members of their groups) were at last week’s interactive session.
It is obviously a marked departure from the ugly past when the CRFFN was perceived as ‘their Council’ and when the CRFFN also found it difficult to relate with the associations.
Discussion about this post