Most Nigerian Freight Forwarders are quacks - Ikokide

Segun Oladipupo

Nigeria Institute of Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers (NIFFCB) has called on the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to make mandatory training for freight forwarders a prerequisite for registration.

President of the Institute, Dr. Zebulon Ikokide told our reporter on Friday that most of the practitioners of the freight forwarding in Nigeria are quacks because they lack the basic knowledge of the trade.

As a result, he said he had sent a proposal to the Council to make sure that all freight forwarders should undergo mandatory courses that will enlighten them on the ethics of the profession so that they will know what it entails.

He added that due to the lack of training, a lot of havoc is wrecked in the industry as individuals jostle for money making without consideration for the development of the economy.

His words; “Today, what we have there in freight forwarding are quacks, they are not freight forwarders. They cannot call themselves freight forwarders because they have not been trained.

“Most of them feel that you can just go and register with the Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria and they will give you certificate that you have been registered and then you become a freight forwarder. No, you are not yet a freight forwarders.

“Actually, like the proposal i have given to CRFFN is that before they register anybody, the person would have gone through a training before you register the person.

“What the first Registrar of the Council was doing was to see that everybody who call themselves freight forwarders are registered so that we can see the register of Freight Forwarders.

“But those people registered first are not freight forwarders because they have not yet been certified as freight forwarders or educated in the act of Freight Forwarding.

“So, we have made a proposal to the Council not to register anybody until the person is trained in the act of Freight Forwarding.

“If they are not trained, they will think they are only to make money only but if they are trained, they will know that as professionals, they have to help develop the country economically.

“But because they are not trained on the ethics of the profession, they do what they like, they support smugglers and allow smuggled goods to come into the country.,” he alleged