CRFFN: Institute Demands Probe of Alleged Missing N2billion

By ZION Olalekan |

President of the Nigerian Institute of Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers (NIFFCB) Dr. Zebulon Ikhokide has called for the probing of an alleged N2billion that was mismanaged in the council.

Dr. Ikohkide who stated this in Lagos noted that the alleged sum was issued to the CRFFN for the purpose of building capacity and training of the freight forwarders to become professionals.

According to him, the NIFFCB is an accredited institute under the CRFFN, he however lamented that no training programme has taken place in the CRFFN for a very long time.

Dr. Ikohkide told our correspondent that the Registrar of the CRFFN, Sir Mike Jukwe who was supposed to retire from the Council in September has appealed for an extension of his service years.

Speaking, he said “The problem here is the funding, I am hearing from the background that the government has given some money to the CRFFN to give to the institute to conduct training but the money has not actually come, we are looking for a way to actually ask them to account for that money.

“We thank God that the Registrar has asked for more time, because he is supposed to retire last September, now that he did not retire, it means that he is going to account for what was given to the CRFFN for the training of the freight forwarders. The institute is there waiting for that money to come up.

“You can see what is happening today, everybody is saying that the freight forwarding industry is a disorganized body, and we cannot have a disorganized body if they are well trained, one of the aims of the Institute of Freight Forwarders is to Train Professionals to their peak and get to their level, we cannot do it without the fund, and I am happy that government has recognized this and has fixed money for it, and if the money goes to CRFFN and they failed to release the money for the training, then this is bad.

“We heard that the money is about N2billion but it is nowhere to be found. Though, some people are saying that the Registrar has already explained to the National Assembly how the money was used, but up till now we don’t know how it was used”.

The NIFFCB President told our correspondent that the training of freight forwarders was supposed to be conducted twice in a year, but that it has been stalled due to lack of funding.