Executive Diploma: Anxiety heightens as CRFFN set to weed out freight forwarders by December, 2021.

Segun Oladipupo

The offline Executive Diploma programme organised for Nigerian freight forwarders by Council For The Regulation Of Freight Forwarding In Nigeria (CRFFN) in collaboration with the University of Lagos (UNILAG) has been said to be a ploy to weed out some freight forwarders.

The programme, which first batch held between June and July and the second batch slated for September, is available to those in Lagos or those willing to stay in Lagos for the duration of the program.

The program costs over N350 thousand.

In a chat with our correspondent, Chidi Anthony Opara, a registered freight forwarder and former member of CRFFN’S Freight Forwarders Consultative Forum, who said the programme is tagged Logistics Chain, expressed fears that CRFFN is reportedly planning to use the “executive diploma” as “entry qualification and to weed out freight forwarders who did not participate in the crash programme by December, 2021.

According to him, the Council has no consideration for the practitioners who have been on the field for several years.

His said, “Let me quickly stress here that I do not doubt the capacity of the University of Lagos to conduct academic study programmes in any field of study.

“What I however doubt is the ability of the premier academic institution to design and impliment credible professional development programmes.

“CRFFN is empowered by the establishment act (act 16 of 2007) to induct freight forwarders who have a certain minimum cognate experience into the body as freight forwarders.

” The act however also empowered CRFFN to by means of regulation stipulate a continuous professional development programme that should be undertaken by the inducted practitioners to improve their professional competence.

“Conventionally, professional regulatory bodies all over the civilized world design and impliment continous Professional development programmes for their members and minimum academic entry qualifications for intending entrants.

“The continous Professional development programmes are designed in a way that every member of the profession must access and participate in to earn credits, with set minimum credits which should qualify the practitioner to continue to practice.

“A decline from the set minimum credits would mean that the Professional would be suspended from practice until the required minimum credits are earned.

“What we have currently is the usual misadventure of CRFFN, not known to have designed and implimented any inclusive continuous professional development programme, rather conducting an offline crash academic programme only in the Lagos area with which it want to use as an entry qualification in December, 2021 for professionals it inducted into the profession (not provisionally) years ago.

“It has been said before by competent CRFFN authorities that any freight forwarder that did not have the “diploma” by December, 2021 will cease to practice.”