Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) has reiterated its readiness to partner with the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) for the purpose of ridding the airports of touts who parade themselves as freight forwarders.
Chief Executive Officer of SAHCOL; Chief Olu Owolabi disclosed this when members of CRFFN led by Sir Mike Jukwe paid a working visit to the SAHCOL office in Lagos yesterday.
Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) has reiterated its readiness to partner with the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) for the purpose of ridding the airports of touts who parade themselves as freight forwarders.
Chief Executive Officer of SAHCOL; Chief Olu Owolabi disclosed this when members of CRFFN led by Sir Mike Jukwe paid a working visit to the SAHCOL office in Lagos yesterday.
Chief Olu Owolabi noted that the move by CRFFN is of benefit to the business community and that his organisation is ready to render support in achieving success.
Owolabi reiterated that there is the need to re-educate freight forwarders in the sector in order to carry other stakeholders along.
He lauded the council’s plans to rid the port of dubious agents, adding that the new warehouse which is currently under construction conforms to what CRFFN aims of eliminating touts from the port.
"In the warehouse, no agent is allowed to go inside the warehouse, all that is needed is to bring the registered agent’s document straight to their office and only him is expected to follow the customs who will also be outside the warehouse to pick his consignment".
He noted that the ongoing warehouse construction will be in operation in January 2014.
The SAHCOL boss however reaffirmed the company's commitment to assist and partner with the CRFFN to rid the ports of touts
The Council the Regulation of Freight Forwarding on its part reiterated its readiness to partner with the aviation sector to achieve greater height in freight forwarding practice.
Earlier, the Registrar of CRFFN Sir, Mike Jukwe said that era of dubious act by agents will soon be a thing of the past, adding that clearing agents at the airport needed to be sensitized on modern best practice of the freight forwarding profession.
The Registrar also noted that government is making effort to bring professionalism into the freight forwarding business in Nigeria, adding that sensitization of freight forwarders is paramount.
He urged the of SAHCOL boss to disregard unregistered agents operating at the airport pointing out that soon such operators will be flushed out of the airport.
Jukwe also noted that, "another mandate that we have that is very critical is to ensure that these laws are enforced and we are getting to the stage of enforcement and to effectively enforce this law, we require your cooperation".
"Those doing illegitimate businesses who are not supposed to be there will be flushed out".
"All those that are not registered with CRFFN will not be allowed to come to your shed because they constitute nuisance ", he assured.
But pandemonium also broke out at the airport when , also yesterday when irate licensed customs agents alleged to be members of the airport Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) harassed the enforcement team the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) who were at the port to sensitize freight forwarders at the airport.
The timely intervention of chapter executives of the association later restored calm to the port operations.
Shipping Position Daily gathered that agents who know little or nothing about the council's existence and programmes man handled some members of the enforcement team of the CRFFN over the enlightenment programme.
The absence of the chairman of the ANLCA MMIA chapter also compounded issue as nobody was on ground to explain what the council represents.
The agents in their loud voices lamented that the CRFFN has no place to operate at the airport rather the seaports are places meant for it to carry out enforcement.
"We are not aware of any agency of government that is responsible to regulate us at the port".
"The next thing they will say is that we are touts and we will not allow them to operate here".
"They should go to the seaports and operate and we know they are here to extort us, so we don't want them here" , they lamented.
Shortly after series of arguments between a police escort attached to the enforcement unit of CRFFN and a member of the association, a God sent executive of the association later addressed members of ANLCA present on what CRFFN represents.
Addressing the irate members of the association over CRFFN visit ,treasurer of the MMIA chapter of ANLCA, Alhaji Abdulazeez Afolabi explained that the CRFFN was only a visit to inform the chapter about its enforcement which will soon be executed at the airport.
The treasurer while calming members said that all was in order and urged the clearing agents to go about their business as the presence of the enforcement team of CRFFN meant good for the freight forwarding practice.
“The coming of CRFFN here is not to attack or arrest us, but to tell us about the September deadline before the enforcement unit will swing into action"
"So, their presence here is not to intimidate anybody, we are all licensed customs agents, we are all going about our lawful business here and we are not doing anything illegal here, “he reiterated.
"We don't need to raise any alarm because all what they are saying is to inform us that those that are yet to register with them should do so, otherwise they will not allow them to operate at the airport", he explained.
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