CRFFN set to delist uneducated freight forwarders from register

By ZION Olalekan |

The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has indicated its intentions to force freight forwarders practicing at Nigerian ports to posses a minimum of diploma certificates, or else, they would be delisted from the council’s register.

Chairman Education and Training Committee of CRFFN, Farinto Kayode who stated this in Lagos recently, warned that any freight forwarder caught in the web would not be allowed to practice at Nigerian ports

The CRFFN chieftain also expressed worry at the influx of crowd into Lagos ports.

He said that the Council is working on this anomaly and that very soon, it would be difficult for unregistered freight forwarders and touts to gain access into Nigerian ports.

He revealed that the Council would have commenced the delisting of uneducated freight forwarders immediately, but that a grace of two years have now been given for the practitioners to regularise themselves.

Farinto said that the CRFFN is worried about the current situation at the port where all manner of people gain access to the terminals and claim to be a freight forwarder.

He warned that very soon, with the geo fencing of the port being carried out by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) it would be difficult for unregistered freight forwarders to gain access into Nigerian Ports.

Farinto stated that “We cannot say that what is going on in our port is ideal, whereby everybody is coming to the port, people who come to the port to hawk their trade are now referring themselves as Customs brokers, these are the people spoiling our jobs, we want to separate the grains from the shafts”

“If you notice now, there is what we call geo fencing going on at all the ports, we are trying to separate the port area to make sure that it is not accessible to hoodlums and just everybody. Make sure you have your ID card as a member of ANLCA, that you are registered with CRFFN and you have your port pass because very soon, it is going to be very difficult to enter the port”

“The CRFFN very soon, I was the one that stopped it, they have said that if you don’t have a diploma you cannot practice, but I stopped it. You must give people a minimum period of two years, so in the next two years, if you are not trained, you cannot practice as a Customs broker and this means that you would be delisted” he said

The CRFFN Committee chairman who also doubles as Vice President of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has vowed to favor his association first whenever training opportunities come up in the Council.

“When we are going for any training, as the chairman of the committee, I will make sure that we start from ANLCA”

“CRFFN has money, it is your contributions because you are going to pay POF, and if you are paying POF, they must train us”

“All the training we are having in ANLCA and the price it is costing, please forward the details to me, as the chairman of education committee, we would collect back our money from CRFFN” Farinto stated