Mr Yinka Bakare is the president of the National Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators. In this interview with Anozie Egole, he speaks on sundry issues about freight forwarding in Nigeria.
“If I go to Cotonou even as a freight forwarder I don’t clear goods there I will have to give it to somebody who is an indigene of Cotonu to clear for me”
“I agree with the President for withholding assent to AfCFTA for a long time …… I think we also need to look at our infrastructures, our taxes, duties amongst others”
What have been the challenges in the eight months that you have assumed office as the president of NAFFAC?
The challenges are many; if there were no challenges, we would not have come in, but I think it is a gradual process and we will overcome it.
What is your assessment of Mr Rotimi Amaechi’s three years in office as the minister of transportation?
I think he is one of those persons we would love to come back as a minister even though I don’t have any personal relationship with him. I think he has done well and I feel it would be nice he continues from where he stopped. And I would advice he is reappointed again as the minister of transportation so that they won’t appoint someone who would start all over again for another six to seven months before he understands what the programme is all about. He is already there he knows where he stopped and where to continue he had done wonderfully well and had laid a wonderful foundation. So it would be nice if he is reappointed as the minister of transportation.
What is your collaboration with Customs at the airport like, especially to ensure compliance to trade laws by your members?
You know one of the things we have been campaigning (and I personally) is the indigenization of this freight forwarding business. There is no two ways about it, if I go to Cotonou even as a freight forwarder I can’t clear goods there I will have to give it to somebody who is an indigene of Cotonou to clear for m, it happens everywhere you just have to be patriotic to your country. But these foreigners are importers they are the same thing as clearing agents; they are not in any association, nobody controls them, so it will be very difficult. I have a Chinese client and he brags that he knows the customs from the top to the last; when you tell him things he will tell you that it is not an issue. And I will ask him, can you do this thing in China he will tell you this is not China, this is Nigeria and if you try it in China you may likely go to jail. And this is one of the reasons we have been campaigning that freight forwarding should be purely an indigenous business.
Let’s talk about the recently signed African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
Let me quickly answer your questions like this, recently the Ghanaians signed an agreement with South Africa that they can travel to South Africa without visa and the question is this, what about Nigerians and they said Nigeria, China and India are the most populous countries in the world. And in this agreement Nigerians as a country has almost 15 to 20% of the whole population of Africa, which means 20% of that market is controlled by Nigeria irrespectively of how you look at it. So it is easier for me to establish a factory in Ghana with less human capital, tax and good electricity and the market is Nigeria. The advantage is that we need to look at where we have advantage, but a lot of things need to be looked at and studied so that we don’t become a dumping ground. What the free trade is saying is that anything you produce in Nigeria can be sold in Ghana and vice versa and other African countries and Nigeria is the market. We have 52 countries in Africa and out of those countries Nigeria alone controls 20% of the population which means that anything you produce and is accepted in Nigeria that becomes the market. I agree with the president for withholding assent to AfCFTA for a long time before it was signed for some reasons. This shows that a lot of things need to be considered and which I think we also need to look at our infrastructures, our taxes, duties amongst others. A lot need to be looked at in other to attract investment.
How has the reconstruction of the airport road helped your business?
In fact for that road alone I would say the former Governor of the state, Akinwumi Ambode, should be the governor of Lagos state for life; that is the best thing that has happened to the country for a long time now. You can’t imagine the traffic we pass through at that place daily. That is the first image for someone coming to the country for the first time.
What are your expectations from the 9th National Assembly?
A lot of expectations, I also expect that once the assembly is working the country will work. I wish them all the best, but we are expecting a lot from them.
There have been so much complaint about of lack of training among practitioners in the freight forwarding profession, what are your plans towards training your members?
Like I said earlier, as I said before nothing can be done if you don’t have resources for that. On training, it is capital intensive because you need to pay for everything from the lecturers to the last person; you will need to pay them. Aside the registration fee, there is no other source of fund for the association. Maybe when we start collecting practitioners fees, we will know what to do, every association wants to train, nobody wants to remain where they are; it is just the resources that we need.
Talking about lack of fund, do you support the POF collection by CRFFN?
Let us leave sentiment aside, without the POF, the CRFFN cannot work. NSC, NIMASA amongst others have their own sources of income and without that they won’t be able to do what they are doing. And let us not also forget that CRFFN is also an agency of the government.
The founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam said that CRFFN is not a government agency, how would you react to that?
My dear brother, this is not argument; it is about the Act that establishes CRFFN. In NIMASA we have people that are not purely maritime persons; in NNPC we have statutory appointments. In the Act of CRFFN the council is made up of 32 members and out of that 15 are from practitioners and 17 are from the government. So when you have 17 against 15 who is in control. There are some certain things you don’t need to argue about.
Recently, the CRFFN travelled to Dubai for training
Like I said earlier I am not the Chiarman of CRFFN, but let me also say this, I don’t think 32 men could be wrong at the same time, I don’t think so. So I would want us to leave it like that.
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