Mr Francis Omotosho is the Registrar of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Academy. In this Interview with Oluyinka Onigbinde, he speaks on the issue on sundry maritime industry issues.
What’s your take about the Maritime industry so far this year?
It’s obvious, the pandemic has crippled activities, everything is just at a standstill, despite the fact that the maritime sector is a sector that must keep moving, because if we totally ‘down tool’ in the maritime industry, definitely by the time you come back, you are going to meet a lot of backlog and a lot of damages would have been done, in a nutshell it has been a difficult year for the maritime industry, but we are optimistic that things will be better next year.
What’s your reaction for the call for waiver of demurrage as a result of the recent EndSARS protest?
The EndSARS protest actually affected the maritime industry, so when you talk of the concept of demurrage in the maritime industry, we imbibe the concept of demurrage to stimulate the operations, so that nobody will leave his own operation without performing it, we imbibe the concept so that people will not abandon their responsibility. So if you abandon your responsibility, you are going to pay for it, and the penalty is the demurrage, but when it comes to civil unrest, such as we had two weeks ago, we may call it an act of God that nobody can do anything about. So I will say that the government should declare a force majeure, because it is not by the freight forwarders making that they decided not to carry out their responsibility or to do their job, it is just an act of God that even government could not stop. Not only that, terminal operators and shipping companies should know how to apply reverse logistics; knowing full well that it is not the making of the freight forwarders that they could not clear their goods, even without government declaring a force majeure, they should know what to do. So it is not out of place if the shipping companies, terminal operators also understand the other side of demurrage by giving that leverage without government forcing them to it.
As a manpower development person in the maritime industry, what is your definition of a freight forwarder?
A freight forwarder is a person who act on behalf of an importer to move goods from one place to another, and make sure that the goods get to the right place at the right time in good order and condition and at the most economic cost. The job of a freight forwarder is not just going to the port to clear, but you are going there on the four point I mentioned; that is, getting the goods out of the port and getting it to the destination at the right time, in good order and condition, the way it was loaded, and at the most economic cost, that’s the essence of logistics, whatever you are doing and you are not reducing cost is not freight forwarding, that’s why it’s not practicable for us to talk about freight forwarding or logistics in Nigeria because everybody is practicing at a high cost, because you cannot deliver at the right time, you can’t deliver at the right place and even in the good condition it was loaded and also at the most economic cos.
Who then is a Custom broker?
Freight forwarder is the generic name for every practitioner who has one or two things to do with movement of goods, it’s just like a medical doctor, a medical doctor is someone who has anything to do with the human body. But we now have specialization, we have the gynecologists, we have the opticians, dentists and the rest, the same thing with customs and customs broker, the generic name for anybody that has anything to do with handling of goods is freight forwarder. In freight forwarding, we have specialization, we have the custom brokers, the custom broker is a freight forwarder, but because his own job is simply customs processes; he deals more with customs, dock worker is also freight a forwarder, his specialization is to simply handle goods, to offload and load, a terminal operator is also a freight forwarder; his specialization is to provide storage place for the goods and make the place conducive for the cargoes, shipping companies are also part of the freight forwarding chain, they are moving goods and that’s what we call freight. Because, the word freight has to do with the money you pay for moving goods. So anybody that has to do with the movement of goods can be referred to as a freight forwarder, even those that package goods are all part of the freight forwarding chain, so they are freight forwarders too.
But what we have in CRFFN is just a group of customs brokerage alone?
This is because the leadership of CRFFN has not harnessed the real component of what freight forwarding is all about. In the CRFFN, I expect categories of packagers, shipping companies, dockworkers, customs brokers and even truckers. So it’s not only for custom brokerage, but for everyone involved in the movement of goods; freight forwarding is all about free flow of international trade goods, that’s what freight forwarding means, so what we need to do is to harness the family of freight forwarding together.
What’s your reaction to the proliferation of unqualified manpower institutions in the country?
The regulatory body should do their job, let them set a standard, there must be a standard, having training institutions as many as possible is the best thing that can happen to any country, but all they need to do is to set standard for the training institutions.
What does it take to become a freight forwarder?
Your ability to learn and you need at least 5 credits in your WASCE
But CRFFN has set a benchmark of at least a diploma?
Yes, that’s what I am saying, if CRFFN set a benchmark of diploma in Nigeria, that’s very good; the entry point is good, you get trained, but the starting point is this, who is the trainer, do they have the facilities on ground for training and the certification?
You have worked at the topmost level with the immediate past President of ANLCA, you are now working with NAGAFF, how do you think there can be synergy between these two associations?
I have told you what freight forwarding comprises of, forget about the nomenclature, all of us are together. I don’t see any difference between ANLCA and NAGAFF, but what normally brings disparity between the two is what I will call vanity, let everybody come together and move on. Just like you said, I have been in ANLCA and I can only pray for them that ANLCA will not die, the only thing they need to do is to leave vanity, I wouldn’t want what I have sown in ANLCA to die, what is happening in ANLCA is lack of forgiveness.
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