Registrar/CEO of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Mr. Kingsley Igwe, in this exclusive interview with Joshua Yousouph, provides clarity on key issues on the freight forwarding sector. From the ongoing legal matters surrounding the Practitioners Operating Fee, to the stand-off with its consultants; SW Global, the delay in reconstituting the CRFFN Governing Council, and the Council’s push into the aviation sector, he offers straightforward explanations and updates. Mr. Igwe also reflects on his achievements in office, including progress in digitization, standardization, collaborations, and institutional stability.
“SW Global has been very wicked and heartless by seizing the website of CRFFN”
“Not less than 60% of our annual overhead goes to the operation of the governing council”
Let’s begin with an update on the POF issue. Any update on the legal and court issues surrounding its collection?
There is no much update on that. The court judgment has been appealed. It is only when the court calls us for a sitting. Right now, it’s still at that level of the appeal. So there might not be anything much for now. The only update is that the court has not fixed a date for the hearing.
The issue of SW Global also needs an update. You said the contract was terminated, but POF is still being collected and they appear to still be running the platform. What is the current situation?
Yes, so what happened is this: The contract with SW Global has been terminated officially from the day of the expiration; according to the contract, which was May 28, 2025. A letter has been issued to SW Global to that effect. Even before that, we wrote to them, notifying them of the expiration. We mandated them that, from that date going forward, they cease to be collecting POF. They need to hand over the POF platform—what is called ERP, Enterprise Resource Management—back to the Council. They need to cease collecting the 20% commission they have been deducting from the source. They need to submit a comprehensive audit statement of what they collected and what they remitted, including the tax they paid on their own 20%. They need to surrender the passes to the back end. They also need to conduct final training on the handover. But till today, SW Global refused. They are still collecting the 20%, which is a criminal act. We have written to them and drawn their attention to that. We have also written to the ministry, drawing attention to it.
They have continued to insist that their contract has not ended, leveraging their own concocted agreement—after the FEC agreement that established the contract. The FEC agreement was very clear: seven years, terminating May 28, 2025. But because that did not favour them, they now made a kangaroo agreement without involving CRFFN. They forced the former Registrar to sign that document under duress. That is what they are now using to insist that their contract has not ended—because that agreement changed the initial seven years from 2025 to 2026, with automatic renewal for another seven years. Who does that?
However, we are seriously working behind closed doors to equip ourselves with all necessary tools to force them out. That is why you notice there is a bit of silence. It is not their right. It is not even a privilege anymore. We don’t have to negotiate on the May 28, 2025 agreement by FEC. As I speak with you, FEC is aware of this problem. SW Global has been very wicked and heartless by seizing the website of CRFFN. Nobody has access to update it. All these things we do—engagements, events—they should ordinarily be on our website. But we hardly do that because they have refused to grant access.
They have also deliberately continued to frustrate the revenue of CRFFN. What they collect, we don’t know. But they will answer for it someday. The dashboard they gave us—those numbers are not encouraging. It is not that people are not there. But if you need to fight, you need to have the energy. One of these days, we will challenge them publicly. It will be live. Everybody will see it. Let them defend themselves; let us defend ourselves.
There have been concerns about the reconstitution of the CRFFN Governing Council. What really is happening?
According to the Nigerian Constitution, the board should be constituted by people knowledgeable about that profession or the sector. They can be from public or private service. CRFFN is the only agency in Nigeria that has a 32-member board. Tell me any other agency that has a similar board? None. The highest I know is about 12—maybe NPA. As big as these agencies are, their boards are as small as 12 members. They were duly-selected from among industry players. Only then are there eight. The political representatives is just about four or six and the other ones are purely on professional qualifications. That is how it should be. CRFFN’s board aggregates people from geopolitical zones, political appointees, individuals of interest, and elected industry members. That is why we have 32. Look at the implication in terms of cost. CRFFN is the least funded agency, yet we have the most representation from the government compared to our sister agencies. Not less than 60% of our annual overhead goes to the operation of the board. If our annual overhead is 300 million naira, 60% of that is used to ensure the board operates. Is that economically effective? No. It means that the overhead of the agency is threatened. Because you have to conduct training from overhead, you have to ensure that you engage in travels for important participation in important events and the rest of it; both overseas and local. It is from the overhead. You also have to ensure staff welfare and sometimes incentives to boost staff morale are from overhead. We rarely have that. So these are some of the challenges. It is not because I am saying it. This is also the challenge that even the government wants to solve. The presidency knows about this. The ministry knows about this. They want to solve it. They have seen it is practically wrong for CRFFN to have that number of governing council. I am not the one saying don’t constitute the Board. I want to be very clear on this. I am not the one saying it. It is what is practical. If that board had been; let’s say within practical range. 10, 11, 12. That board would have been constituted a long time ago. This is because it is a tool for all the manipulations. I don’t know when the decision will be taken. That is why I think they are still permutating.
I don’t know anything about it. I am not involved. I don’t know what discussion is being had. Tomorrow they can come up and call me and say this is what they have done. I will not say no. Whatever comes from the higher authority either from the ministry, National Assembly or from the Presidency, I am ready to comply. I, single-handedly cannot stop the board. Whoever said that, doesn’t know how the government operates. He is only talking from sentimental view based on events that have happened in CRFFN. No Registrar will say the board should not be constituted. Who does that? Nobody does that. The MD of NPA cannot say his board should not be constituted. No, he is not the decision maker until the President, the FEC or the national assembly. That is only when we can. So anyone saying he is the Registrar is only being ignorant of hierarchy. It is not me. So that is that about the board.
Why have you not been able to penetrate the aviation sector for POF collection?
Oh yes. We already have a working understanding with FAAN. That was what gave us the advantage to conduct our training there the last time, which we are repeating in Abuja and other parts. The only reason we haven’t done much repetition of that training is because of funds—primarily. And secondly, many new initiatives are coming up such as the National Single Window, digitization, I need to give them physical attention to avoid gaps. I really want to be there physically and ensure the right process, the right things are penned down and the right structure is set. If I am not there, a lot of gaps will be created. Like we have and MoU twith CBi-MACN. At least from there you can see a bit of what I am talking about. These things did not start today. It started since early this year and I have been following through every bit of the process to ensure that we are able to think far and wide on how this can benefit the industry. I have seen the benefit of this in the freight forwarders industry. That is why I encourage it. Very soon we are going to start trainings on the National Single Window. I am an active member of the National Single Window structuring process. Most of the errors I have to correct and they solidify. These are practical corrections. There are things that are very simple. And I have to follow them.
What would you consider your key achievements in one year?
Thank God you guys interviewed me before. One of the things I told you was my interest in massive training, introducing standards, and digitizing processes. We have achieved this to an extent. The design stage is almost completed. The next phase is to launch some of these platforms. That will standardize the process. That is a whole package including what we’ve done today. It’s an integral part of that. Integrated. This will bring some level of SOP. It’s not something you need to circumvent. I don’t need to downplay too many enforcements to see whether you follow the process. It’s you and the system. If you try to use the system and the system disallows you from manipulating it. You deal with it. So we are bringing standards. The freight forwarding sector is like an informal sector with many informal practices everywhere. This is one of the tools we are using to formalize the system, including National Single Window. How much you’re charging for whatever you’re charging will be standardized. It’s not just anybody just wake up and choose what to charge. Everybody will have to know this. Everybody will have to know the procedures. Like everybody knows what pure water is. It’s going to be successful but it’s going to take time. Standardization and digitization is 60% achieved.
On training, We have not been able to conduct as many trainings as we wanted. Why? Because some of the instruments that will help us to conduct these trainings are also being developed. So we are coming from a region where there is nothing and we are creating something. This is not to talk down on what the previous administrations have done. Let me use the word we are going from manual to digital. Manual has really not helped. Even the manual, you can’t make reference to any record. So these were the challenges. But we have been able to aggregate information and develop processes and systems that can help us to now chart the way forward. We have achieved that.
We have also reasonably achieved industrial harmony. Within CRFFN as against before, where we have a lot of crisis and stuff. That has been managed and subsidized by the special grace of God. Again, we have entered into collaboration with nothing less than 15 agencies of governments and privates partners. I think in this period, we will be invited more for similar things we did today with the MOUs. All of these times, I have done a lot of reviews and drafting of MOUs, based on the collaborations we have had. The ICPC MoU is in the pipeline and also the Nigerian Police, which we have focused their understanding to enhance intelligence enforcement strategy. It is with intelligence that we will follow our MOUs and train them to be jointly engaged in law enforcement. The great thing about CRFFN is how it is now been recognized in Nigeria, both in government agencies and private companies. A lot of people now know what CRFFN is, as against before. So that is a big credit for us. At least you can attest to that. People now know what CRFFN is. I also give you guys the media credit for helping us to push that image forward. Capturing all our doings, engagement, events and all of that. That helped also. And also we have been at the forefront of passing on the right information, as against before. Where nobody knows what to say, even when something is said is wrongly said which created doubts and lack of confidence. People now have confidence in us.
We have been able to also improve staff welfare unlike the last time where we had issues of non-payment of salary and all of that. Even though there are still a little bit of issues. But it is not a major issue. The challenge now is finalising the promotion. A challenge that has been hanging for a long time. Which at the moment I think it will be resolved soon because it is on top gear. It is 90% resolved.
