NAGAFF seeks for inclusion of Freight Forwarders in concession review

Tayo Oladipupo |

The National President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Increase Uche, has called on the federal government to include all relevant stakeholders who participate in cargo processing in the port in the planned review of concession agreement.

He said the move would help the government to avoid the mistakes it made in the port concessioning in 2006.

He said it would be improper to constitute a review committee without including the freight forwarders.

He said this while speaking with journalists in his office at the weekend, saying that critical stakeholders have shown interest to be part of the review committee in order to correct mistakes of the past.

He also suggested that there should be a committee after the review that will monitor the activities of the operators to make sure that they keep to the tenets of the agreements reached.

He said, “2006 concession generated a lot of hues. Critical stakeholders like freight forwarders are agitating that now that government has seen the need to review the concession agreement, to correct the shortcomings, we will like to make our inputs from our informed perspective.

“If government goes ahead to constitute committee without the freight forwarders, it will be improper.

“So for us in NAGAFF, our position right now is that we will give support to NPA and whosoever that is involved. Thank God that ICRC is now involved, they are more technically inclined to carry out this reform and the freight forwarders must be involved fully, the shipper who is the owner of the cargo must be there then the carrier who is the owner of the vessel, the vehicle or truck owner must be involved that is the three parties.

“Likewise in formulating any policy or agreement, that will form the policy framework with which the port will operate, we are calling for a holistic approach in constituting the committees that will review and monitor operations at the end of the review.

Godfrey Nwosu, Secretary, Tincan Island chapter of the association in a different interview stated that the port concessioning was carried out without proper consultation with relevant stakeholders.

He however quipped that the freight agents are the principal facilitators of trade who have the knowledge to advise government on the right decisions to make in terms of assigning cargoes to terminals and siting of terminals.

Nwosu demanded that the review should make space available for the freight forwarders to retire after the day’s work as obtained at the airport where space was made available for agents to build their relaxation spots.

“Today, we are not taken into account so that we can make our inputs and be able to make a divide between where wet cargoes can be handled and managed and where bulk cargoes can be handled and managed.

“They are back at it again after expiration of the contracts to review how well the port concession arrangement had faired.

“We are reading from the papers today how NPA and Shippers’ Council instead of bringing in stakeholders are running from Abuja to Lagos trying to make unnecessary impressions, lip service.

“I will limit it to Tincan here because our headquarters has the final say but our challenge here is that we have no village where freight forwarders retire instead of hanging around the customs area after work”, he stated.