Freight forwarder condemns CRFFN passion to collect POF - says fee will add to cost of of business at ports

Segun Oladipupo

A stakeholder in the freight forwarding profession, Olufemi Olabanji has lampooned the Governing Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), including its Registrar, for the passion it has exhibited in collecting the controversial Practitioners Operation fees (POS) rather than pursing its core mandate of empowering freight forwarders.

He observed that this has made the Council to set off on a wrong footing as the collection of the fee will obviously add to the cost of doing business at the nation’s ports.

The freight forwarder advised the council to put more energy into how it will empower freight forwarders through constant training and retraining rather than adding more burden to the port operators.

Olabanji who spoke with journalists in his office early this week, added that the Registrar had not invited relevant stakeholders on how trainings would be carried out for them but has started deliberating on how to collect Practitioners Operating Fees (POF).

He maintained that the management of the Council should focus on its core mandate of building capacity for practitioners instead of depending heavily on the much talked-about POF collection.

According to him, the Council’s governing board members were gradually drifting from the purpose establishing CRFFN; even as he called on the Registrar to ensure adequate training of practitioners.

He said, “The council can now perform better but I want them to remember that training of practitioners is key.

“We should ensure that training is consistent because the future is bright for we the operators.

“I benefitted from the trainings offered by Redeemers University courtesy CRFFN and this time around, I want the board members to ensure that the training campaign and sensitisation of practitioners is taken as a priority.

“CRFFN should look inward to promote training of the practitioners and that should be its priority for now before talking about POF. When we are talking about POF collection and this purpose of establish the council is faulty then there is a problem”.

He called on the government to have a rethink about POF collection as it would add to the cost of clearing goods from the nations seaports.