CRFFN begins collection of POF

Abiola Seun

The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) on Monday, launched the collection of the Practitioners Operating Fee (POF) in Lagos.

The POF which amounts to N5billion will be collected from freight forwarders who operate at the seaports across the country.

The Registrar of the Council, Barr Samuel Nwakohu during the soft launch of the POF, explained the steps to take to make payments on the portal.

According to him, the soft launch means that there will be no full importation into the portal until two to three weeks.

A 20ft container will attract a fee of N1,000 while a 40ft container will attract N2,000 fee before it would be cleared from the port.

“We have worked very hard to make sure the objectives of the POF have been effective and achieved.

“This soft launch is restricted to the seaport for now, it is a phase thing and we will get to the airport eventually.

“This is also a period to observe the technology, it has been in observation but we should know that there is a difference between the field and things done in the office,” he said.

Nwakohu pointed that there would be a 16-man member response team that would attend to people in case of any issue with the portal.

He said that each account on the portal would have an e-wallet where one can keep funds aside and in case of any issue, it could be reverted within 48-hours.

He noted that for security reasons during payment, a One-Time Password (OTP) would be generated from the bank and when that is done, one would be able to be debited.

The registrar said that the name of the freight forwarder, consignment and description of goods would be on the printout given and also an acknowledgement copy sent to the person’s email.

He said that terminal operators would be provided with an Excel sheet which would be ticked off before one was allowed to carry the cargo out of the port.

“Terminal operators have nothing to do with the process on the portal, the only role they play is to verify the receipt against the control document to ensure one has paid before leaving the port.

“What one needs is to be able to access the portal using their registration number and follow the steps and the portal accepts all cards for payment.

“Very soon, the portal will be accessed through the Google play store for download,” he said.

The CRFFN registrar said that there was an environment in the portal that showed the level of activities going on in the port so as to monitor progress.