Chief Osita Chukwu Patrick (Coordinator, Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders)
Chief Osita Chukwu Patrick (Coordinator, Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders)
The CRFFN is justified to collect the practitioners fee as long as they maintain the status quo on what we call the Federal Character, they are collecting this money on behalf of the freight forwarders, the Institute of Bankers also collects their own, Chattered Accountants collect their own, NPA also collects their own and nobody disturbs them, but how proper have we been integrated in the system to know that this collection will serve the betterment and progressive movement of freight forwarders so that it will not enter wrong pockets. I support them fully. The Act empowers the CRFFN to collect the money, they have been given government approval just like it was given to the NPA, we should be paying practitioners fee, but what they fail to understand is that customs has made it so uncomfortable for the CRFFN to be able to issue us licenses, if they were issuing us licenses, perhaps the collection would have been justified.
Eniola Odulaja (stakeholder)
It is justifiable for the council to collect the Practitioners Operating Fees irrespective of the crisis among the freight forwarding associations. I believe that the collection of that particular fee is to empower the practitioners and the council also needs fund to run the organisation, because there are staff that work there. Apart from that, the council is established by an Act of Parliament, therefore it has the power to execute whatever that is enshrined in the Act that brought it into existence.
Davies Kanikwu Chucks (Secretary ANLCA, Tin Can)
If the CRFFN is not careful, people will begin to take them to court individually?, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam is the cause of the crisis in the council today, he caused the crisis in the Council of Managing Directors, how can a responsible body certify the Council that was in crisis and having two leaderships, what is the role of the CRFFN? It is to avoid this kind of conflict, but they are now recognising a factional leader of the National Council. The CRFFN is not justified to collect any money at the port because they are directionless. CRFFN is a parastatal in the ministry of transport, and by the Act, when there is no Council in place, all these decisions cannot hold, the Registrar, Mike Jukwe is just a person who holds records, what he is doing is contravening the Act of the council, why are they hasty in collecting money, when they have not regulated properly, have they stemmed the proliferation in the industry? The subvention from the government is enough for them to conduct elections into the governing board.
Babatunde Shittu (Clearing agent)
Monies to be collected by the CRFFN is indeed justifiable, but my grouse in the matter at stake is that such monies are not meant for sharing among the associations rather it is for capacity building of the practitioners. The fee is to ensure that structures are in place to build capacity. The council from the onset made a big mistake by saying that there will be some percentage for the various associations as sharing formula, which I will say such impression speaks volume. Apart from the fact that I support the collection of the fee, problem of mismanagement is another factor that the council will have to contend with at the end of the day, but if it will be well managed then there will no problem of collection.
Francis Omotosho (Training Officer, ANLCA)
The collection of practicing fee by CRFFN is not justifiable, it is illegal and it is not practicable anywhere in the world, where practitioners will be paying the regulator, the regulator has its own budget and it gets income from the Federal Government, in the first instance when we were telling them that they are not a government agency, they argued with us that CRFFN is a government agency, if they are a government agency then let the Council collects it's money from government, they cannot collect money from both sides, as it is, we are the ones generating money for the government through the customs and we are still telling them to give us 10% of it but they refused. Let the CRFFN forget about this issue and focus on getting a governing council, the major thing about them is training, once they shift attention to money alone they will get their hands burnt.
Pius David (Stakeholder)
My position on the issue at hand is that it is justifiable for CRFFN to commence collection of the Practitioners Operating Fees in the sense that the council is a regulatory body for freight forwarders in Nigeria. It is not just a regulatory body, it is a body set up by an Act of Parliament; this means that it went through the legal process. Therefore I will say it is right to collect the fee, it is also legal and constitutional. I totally support the collection of the fee because it will help the practitioners in various ways. An individual or freight forwarding associations cannot stop a government agency to perform its statutory function.
Atoloye (Customs broker)
In Nigeria today, we have different kinds of policy that may favour some parties and can also be of disadvantage to others. CRFFN was set up to perform some certain duties to better the lots of Nigerian freight forwarders and collection of the fee which I will say is secondary for CRFFN is also necessary. But above all, it is justifiable for the council to collect the due and I will say CRFFN is on the right track.
Gani Adeola (PRO, PTML ANLCA)
The CRFFN issue is like you having a child and you refuse to train him, at the end of the day the child finds his way to educate himself and yet you expect him to pay back to you, it is not possible. The CRFFN are not there for us, we are suffering, for many years the CRFFN were not in the system, now they just surfaced from nowhere and say they want to come and collect revenue.? We are suffering in the hands of customs, terminal operators and shipping companies, 90 percent of customs brokers are hypertensive now because there is pressure on us, so many alerts have been introduced by the customs and you are not even sure when your cargo will be coming out, we just continue to give series of excuses to our importers, we have six various kinds of alerts.
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