“APFFLON has sent in accreditation application to CRFFN for over four years and there has not been any response so far”
Otunba Frank Ogunojemite is the National President Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria. In this interview with Oluyinka Onigbinde and Joshua Yousouph, he talks about the recent CRFFN elections. He also touches on Customs-related issues and freight forwarding in general.
What’s your assessment of the just-concluded CRFFN Governing Council elections?
We are happy that the election has been concluded, but we are still waiting for the inauguration. I want to use this opportunity to speak to the Honorable Minister of Transportation that, now that the elections have been concluded the management of CRFFN needs to be sanitized and be assessed. They should change the way of doing things. Without doing this, it won’t help the Governing Council. The Management should look into this holistically.
Are you satisfied with the way the election went?
Before you expect a change, there must be a change. The first thing is that the individual candidacy in the election has taken place, which is a stepping stone. Although there have been different issues raised, one thing sacrosanct is that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. We were reluctantly satisfied because based on my investigation on SW Global, I noticed there were some issues with the registration of members. It took about a few weeks to register some members, especially in our association and I realized this must have affected other associations too. First, that made the franchise of those eligible to vote to be eroded. It also reduced the revenue for the Council itself. This is because if the portal was opened, probably a lot of people would have updated their subscriptions at that time. The register of voters is supposed to have been pasted before that time. There were issues about that but all the same, we have started and we don’t expect perfection. But we want the Minister and the CRFFN to improve in the next elections. 24 months is no longer far. That is why we want the Honorable Minister to let us fill the gap which the lack of Governing Council has caused, and which is affecting the performance of the Council. So, let rehabilitation take place and let’s begin to improve. I don’t think there’s anything wrong if we start thinking of automated elections. If there’s an automated election, you can be in your office and cast your vote. The voters’ register will be there and with your RFF number, it cannot be cloned. It will be easier for people to participate and reduce costs. The money bags around will not hijack it, because the people will have options. Not everyone was able to be present on election day. People were even scared of the security of the environment. These are issues the Minister and the Council’s management should take into cognizance in the next election.
You championed the fight for independent candidacy at the last election as against the 6-6-1-1-1 agreed by other associations. However, the result of the elections showed that NAGAFF and ANLCA divided the slot. Do you think you have achieved your aim?
First, I would like to thank the Honorable minister for standing on his word and not to be intimated in any way. To be honest, even if NAGAFF or ANLCA in any way took the whole slots, I would still be happy for the fact that individual candidates have been given the privilege to participate. We need to understand that corporate associations are not human beings. If you go by associations, it is still human beings that constitute the association. Why can’t you go straight to see the faces of the human beings that will come on board rather than some people in the industry dictating? Of course, NAGAFF and ANLCA have taken the slots but you never made mention of some other associations who are supposed to have been allocated some slots and were not able to make it. Anyways, this is due to the actions and strength of some people in the industry that’s is why we didn’t see a large turn up of people for the election. I bet with you that the next election will be quite different from this.
There are insinuations that the Minister of Transportation already has his anointed candidate to become the chairman of the governing board. What do you make of this?
I once said there cannot be a change, if there is no change. Let’s get there first. Of course, the election always takes place before they choose the Chairman. Then they should wait for that kind of thing to happen and if it happens, there’s a way people raise concerns about these issues. If they raise concerns, at the end of the day, the Minister will have a rethink that he has taken a wrong decision by autocratically selecting people on the Governing Council. In that case, it would not repeat itself in the next 24 months because the law is always above crime. If this happens, it will not give him a chance to do such again, because it happened in the last election when someone voted himself in, but this time around it will be a different ball game. So now, everyone will go and build his own profile and prepare. We would get it right and we can do better.
What is APFFLON’s present stand as regards getting accreditation from CRFFN
You have used the appropriate word. People always say registered association and I wonder how an association can operate without being registered. This is because the 1979 Constitution provides registration with Corporate Affairs commission, which I think supersedes every other registration. Talking of accreditation, APFFLON has sent in application letters to CRFFN for over four years and there has not been any response so far, which is of no importance to the performance and advocacy of ease of doing business for APFLON. But if we have a commission or external body to come and assess associations’ performance. I think they should be able to have a place to rate APFFLON. APFFLON is not limited to Nigeria. It is the African Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON) which extends to South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana. Accreditation by a body in Nigeria cannot be an impediment to the performance of APFFLON and we are still going to ask CRFFN why APFFLON has not been accredited. This is because, in the Act, there are criteria for an association to be accredited. There is no section that has limited the number of associations that can be registered. This is an area that causes cartels in the industry. Also, the fact that some associations have been accredited does not mean they are still fit to be on the council. Prior to elections, a lot of associations have not paid their dues up to date. And what the law says in the Act is that if you have not done that within six months you should be deregistered. Can the management of CRFFN say boldly to me that they have done that at any point in time? It is just a hypocritical affair where associations go and update their subscription when elections is coming. I also cannot blame these associations who did not update themselves because the Council itself failed in its responsibilities. Look at the issue of FIATA, the Council has been parading themselves when they are not yet even part of FIATA. It is being a shame in the committee of Maritime nations. That is why I said the management itself has to be sanitized before you can expect a positive and credible performance from the Governing Council members. Charity begins at home. Leadership is by example. Let them showcase discipline and transparency, then we will be able to know which area to address.
Freight forwarders have been agitating and calling for the automation of the maritime industry. But in the last three months, it looks as if the freight forwarders are not ready for automation as they kick against VIN, VREG, and eValuation. Is it that freight forwarders are not ready for automation?
I will say that is a misconception. Freight forwarders are not kicking against VIN. But if you need to look at the VIN platform or e-invoicing from a legal perspective, it is illegal. This is because that was not included in the CEMA, Section 20 of the Act states that valuation should be based on internet price and transaction value. That apart, what we need to do is to make things easier so that there won’t be discrepancies between the price being paid on certain types of vehicles. Prices of vehicles should be the same amount for Mr A and Mr B. So with eValuation, we can have that. It was kicked against because the duty was actually carried higher and I will say this is unfair. If there is going to be an increment, it should be in a little proportion. That is the issue freight forwarders are addressing. The agitations by freight forwarders are not for themselves, it is for everyone in the country. Looking at the value of Naira to Dollar, it shows you need more Naira to purchase a vehicle of 2,000 dollars, now than six to seven months ago. If duty is unnecessary up, it shows that the cost of living will be very high. If there is going to be an increment, the government has to consider a lot of things. For instance, in the Western countries and even in some African countries, import duty was abolished for a while because of the pandemic. That was one of the palliatives they did for their citizens. As I speak to you, terminal charges have been increased. Telex and Sea Waybill was free because it was just like an email or ordinary paper but they now charge N10,000 to N15,000 on it now. All these little costs will be added to the cost of importing anything into the country. The increment is not limited to vehicles. General goods are having the same issue. When I was at the National Assembly, I noted that the blame is not on Customs but on the policymakers and the Federal Ministry of Finance. The target given to Customs is always going up every year and when you give them a target, of course, the target has to come from different areas. We are not even being notified before duty rates are increased. So freight forwarders are not against the VIN valuation platform, e-Invoicing, or valuation. All we are saying is that the Duty is unnecessarily and astronomically high which would affect the standard of living and cause inflation in the country. When there is inflation, then it will lead to a recession. Some people live on loans and by the time they import the vehicle, they will need to repay back. Then how will they get it? There is no financial assistance in this country. If you have N50 million and you go to the bank to get three million naira on top of it, you will be treated like a nobody. There are a lot of things the government needs to put in place if they want to look after the citizen of this country.
Watch Also: Shipping Position Interaction with Otunba Frank Ogunojemite
Freight forwarders have complained that the cost of duty is still high despite the suspension of the VIN policy. Can you give us the discrepancies between the cost of duty now and the way it was before the introduction of the VIN policy?
The target of Customs has increased and this has to be considered. So whether we like it or not, there is a partial increment from the old duty. Don’t also forget that about four weeks during which the protest was staged; between those days, there was communication between NPA and shipping companies to waive duty, but this has got to a stage where the Terminal operators flouted the directives. This has happened before where things were even tough, during COVID. They followed the directives of the Federal Government and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council was really struggling to get some rent waivers for some limited people. Due to the last protest, people are still paying rent as high as N160,000 to N200,000 for a car of 2008 or 2007. Where does that rent go? So when we were protesting, the people were just taking advantage of us. So there must be a condition or clause in the terms of these concessions. Government policies are very important to most of these things.
We learnt that for that period of protest, PTML gave a 70 percent waiver
From the statistics I got from my members, it was only five days that was waived and if surely they have done that, they can show us the proof. I can confirm that for you. To be honest with you, I also experienced it and I still have over 20 to 22 vehicles down there which I’m trying to work on. If peradventure they have waived 70 percent, who is going to be lamenting on it? This is not supposed to be difficult because the economic regulator, that is the Shippers’ Council are supposed to have handled this in collaboration with CRFFN. Easily everyone should be able to get data on events in the maritime industry through these people, but what data can we confirm from them. It is only If we decide to conduct a hypothesis or take samples from our members, that is where we can get our data from. It is not supposed to be like that when there is accuracy and accountability in a professionalized industry.
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